MAD
by Elfopolis
Summary: 6 Years after Sonic left Earth, Chris has created a machine that will take him to the other world. However, an uneasy new President assigns a team to tag along and learn about the 'alien species'. This includes one suspicious geneticist.
1. Be Thankful

Author's Note: This is a compilation of Sonic Universes, limited by my own knowledge of both. And also, this is my first story! Woo! So comments, please? But if you're going to criticize, please be constructive about it. I don't appreciate bashing.

I'll try to be quick here. So despite my own personal disappointment in the TV show Sonic X I thought that the concept of the character Chris was not as annoying as some other people. My problem came with the last season. I felt that by changing Chris back into a kid it worked against the show's attempts to mature him. His realization, at the end, that he had to leave this world, was not enough in my opinion. Lastly, I disagreed with the Metarex because it took away the opportunity for the humans to learn about _Sonic's_ world, where before Sonic and co. had a lot to learn about _our_ world.

So I started thinking: Say Chris was able to visit Sonic's world and was able to learn about it. All those questions they talked about in the last episodes of the second season: _what's it like?_ And Sonic's response throughout the series: _The Sky and the Moon are the same._ How would they be answered? And would the humans realize that their species had more similarities or differences between them? If the world could learn about Sonic and his world – about the supernatural things that occur and their advantage in technology – how would they response? I think some people would want to exploit it.

Lastly, and most importantly, What would Sonic's world _be like_?

So I thought up this little tale, and as my own preference, I used the SatAM cartoon version of Sonic's world here. I did this not necessarily out of laziness, but because let's face it: The SatAM world is awesome, and though it was a child's cartoon it provoked so many complexities. And because it has a darker outlook than Sonic X I felt it would a) serve to show Chris that the hero who fell out of the sky one night does not necessarily live in a wonderland, and b) provide a complex environment for other humans to make their own assumptions.

HOWEVER, realize that though I love Sonic, my version of his world is so tainted it's unbelievable. I've read the comics more than watching the show, because I watched the show so long ago that I don't remember half of it. My knowledge of people such as Ixis Nagus and the Void and such is very limited, so I avoid putting any of that in my version of the universe.

Anyways, Legal stuff: All Sonic X characters are copyright 4KidsTV and the respective companies that created the show.

All SatAM characters that appear in this story are copyright the SatAM cartoon and its creators. Sonic is copyright SEGA and I don't own any of these people.

Any places used on 'Earth' that are, well, real, are copyright Earth.

All other characters that might appear in this story are copyright me. Rawr.

And here we go.

* * *

><p>Chapter 1: Be Thankful<p>

The smooth, steel edges of the machine towered over the laboratory. Their sleek and arched design, positioned in the exact center of the room, made them reminiscent of the mythical gateways described in myths and legends. And accurate, too, for a gateway was precisely what it was…

It was evening. The room that held this awesome spectacle was dimly lit, and the brownish-yellow light burning from the bulbs reflected off the walls and windows, slightly obscuring the view of the city. Like the device the room was aesthetically pleasing, but had a cold and mechanical feel. This feeling was mirrored by the silence that protruded the air. Then, suddenly-lightly-, the rhythmic sound of typing echoed from its origins down below. A boy by the console of these arches, rapidly punching in data on the display screen. He looked to be about eighteen, and his blue eyes flashed furiously from the display screen to the machine.

After a long sequence of numbers was punched in, the boy paused to brush his reddish-brown hair away from his eyes and sighed. With a sense of finality he pressed a button on the console.

A hissing noise filled the air as hydraulic pistons drew hidden panels back from the steel exterior of the arches. Within there emerged a series of lasers, mounted upon mirrors. At first they appeared to be aimed at one another, but upon firing the red strip of light passed only inches from their 'targets', instead bouncing off the mirrors and creating a star-like pattern. It bounced from mirror to mirror, creating a web of lasers until the gateway shined a bright red. For a moment nothing happened, as the engines of the machine roared in increasing intensity. Then, suddenly, the red layer shifted to white, and the brightness increased to a blinding point before dying down. The engines' roar slowed to an idle. Now in place of empty space there stood a swirling portal between the arches, randomly shifting to all colors of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The boy, who had been shielding his eyes behind his arms, slowly took in the sight before him now. His expression faded from dumbstruck awe to jubilation. He gasped slightly as he took in a triumphant breath. He had done it…

"Well done, Mr. Thorndyke," Came a voice from behind. The boy's expression faltered, and he turned around to find that he was no longer alone in the laboratory. A man stood before him now, adorned in a blue pinstriped suit, and escorted by an entourage of black-suited security. The man was smiling slightly, and clapping his hands.

"A portal system capable of penetrating time and space. Impressive. And as rumor has it, unlimited by the concept of dimensions. I must say, Mr. Thorndyke, you've outdone yourself," He grinned, walking up to the console the boy was standing at, and placed his hand upon the controls. He glanced at them for a moment, then his eyes met the boy. "Bet you the folks down at the University will pay off those student loans in jiffy once you present this, eh?"

"…Who gave you clearance to enter?" The boy asked defiantly. He typed something into the machine's console, and the bright light of the portal dimmed. It faded back into the red lasers and then simply died out, powering down completely.

"The President of the United States, who else?" Replied the man, walking up to the steel arches. "Carl Warner, Secretary of Defense. It's a pleasure, Mr. Thorndyke." He reached the first arch and placed his hand upon it. Still cool. Meanwhile, the boy stood by uncomfortably, not sure how to react.

"The President has taken an interest in your project, Christopher," said the Secretary of Defense, "And so have I. In your report you stated that you wanted to develop this machine as a means of exploring different dimensions that we normally could not penetrate, so as to better understand the fundamental properties of our universe. However, I've read about your personal experience with dimensions that exist separately, but parallel, to our own. Your experience leads me to believe that you may have a more personal agenda in opening this portal."

The boy frowned, clenching his teeth together. He did not answer.

Carl Warner, Secretary of Defense, smiled. "I thought so. You're going to have to come with me, Christopher."

* * *

><p>Christopher Thorndyke sat upon a red velvet seat, hands folded, in the hallway leading to the Oval Office. Next to him stood two guards, one on each side. They stared straight ahead, as if concentrating heavily on whatever was being fed to them through those clear-wired ear pieces. He glanced at them for a moment, and then sighed. He had been here for hours, it seemed.<p>

From around the corner there were footsteps, and the slight sound of something rolling. Chris looked up to see two figures walking towards him, both escorted by guards. One was senile, with grey hair exploding out from his scalp. The other was younger, about his age, and bound by a wheelchair.

"There you are!" called the elder of the two.

"We came as soon as we heard," said the young woman. Despite the situation, she was grinning ear to ear. "Is it true, Chris? Did it really work?"

Chris returned her grin, "Yeah, it really worked. Oh Helen, you shoulda seen it. It was beautiful."

"I'm so jealous! I wish I could've been there. We both do, huh Chuck?"

Chuck, the elder one, grinned and folded his arms, "Would've been nice. I have no idea how you got it working," He frowned as a door opened from down the hall and a man in black ushered them forward. "However, it seems there are more pressing matters at hand here."

The four guards now escorted the trio down the hallway. They followed silently, each puzzling over what this presidential summons would entail. They entered the doorway, and found themselves in the Oval Office itself, in front of the familiar wooden desk. At its head was the President, and also present were The Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, and a man Chris recognized as Thomas Weldenburg, the nation's leading scientist in biological genetics.

The president, a tall and well-statured man, extended a hand towards the two white couches in front of them, "Please, sit down."

Chris, and Chuck did so while Helen positioned herself between the two couches. They waited as the President stood up, and moved towards the window. He pulled down a row of blinds with his hand, looked outside for a moment, then let them snap shut. Then he turned and looked at the boy with an expectant expression, "You're aware of the incident that took place when a portal like this was opened before, correct?"

Chris straightened up and frowned at this unexpected question. "You're talking about the melding of our two timelines."

"Opening this portal," interjected Mr. Warner, "Travelling through it, or bringing something back is a direct threat to our national security. To our _wordly_ security. If you're planning to do what I think you are, you realize I can't let you continue," He hesitated, glancing towards the President. "_We_ can't let you continue."

Chris, frustrated, looked down at the carpet. This had always been the concern.

"But you fail to realize what actually caused the timeline distortion. It was the Chaos Emeralds that did that, not the portal itself. The power of the Chaos Emeralds is random. It left holes in the fabric of time and space that threatened to tear our worlds apart. My machine doesn't use Chaos power. It creates a controlled opening, like a fine jet of air through water. Once the jet dissipates, the water closes around it and goes back to normal. There is no danger."

"Danger takes many forms…" The President said softly. "My predecessor was soft on this issue. He allowed the aliens that came through that portal to live amongst us without taking any action. The result was chaos and confusion amongst our civilians, billions of dollars of damage done to the nation's property, lives lost, and strained relations with our neighbors," The President removed his glasses and massaged the surface of his eyelids, "And you, Mr. Thorndyke, want to bring that all back."

"No," Chuck retorted, standing up. All the security guards in the room flinched instinctively, "Nothing would be brought back to our world. We do not wish to take beings from their home. We wish to travel to it ourselves. When they came here they learned so much about our world and our culture. We learned nothing about them. We want to see how they live."

"An exploration mission," Said the President softly.

"Exactly," Helen replied, then added, "…And a chance to reconnect with some old friends."

"Who are not _aliens_." Chris said.

"I beg to differ," The Secretary of State retorted. "Mr. President, these creatures are extra-terrestrials that imposed themselves upon our world and brought their war here. They posed a threat to the nation with their escapades, with their disregard to our laws. And lastly, they possessed abilities far greater, in some cases, than of our nation's defenses. Not to tread on Mr. Warner's ground, but Mr. President, these creatures are weapons. We cannot allow ourselves to be exposed to them again."

"None of them were _weapons_!" Chris said strongly, standing up. "Only one of them had that kind of power, and he used it to help us in our time of need!"

"Against a threat that wouldn't have existed in the first place if they hadn't come here," said Mr. Warner.

"Now, now, this discussion is not meant to get heated," said the President. "Sit down, boy. I am well aware of who you speak, and I know that his intentions were good. But just because something is done in good faith does not mean that the consequences are different. I fear what opening this portal could do if one of them were to find a way back."

"In all fairness, Mr. President," Chuck said, smirking, "They had this technology way before we did. They always had the power to come back. If they had wanted to so badly, don't you think they would have done it by now?"

The President did not answer. Both Secretaries were fuming behind him.

"Please, sir. We seek nothing other than the chance to learn."

"Mr. President…" The State said.

"Mr. Weldenburg?" The President turned and looked towards the Geneticist, who had not yet spoken. "Your thoughts?"

He smiled. It was a warm, strong smile. The man was big, bigger than most scientists. Bigger than most other men, actually. He put his hand to his chin and chuckled, scratching his beard.

"Ever since their arrival seven years ago I have been dying to see how these aliens work, especially the quickster. Their race is a prime example of evolution in the future. Think of all the scientific knowledge we could acquire by studying them, both genetically and anthropologically. The prospect of observing an entirely new world of races is an astounding one. Of course it is not without risks, but then again, since when has Science not? Were there risks to sending man to the moon? Of course, but we took that risk and look where it got us: amazing breakthroughs in technology and knowledge. I, as a scientist, approve of this mission. And I know of a couple other specialists that would as well, and possibly like to accompany the boy on this expedition."

The President sighed, and sat down in his chair, glancing at the four intellectuals in front of him. "I have always been one to urge new scientific connections. Assuming these people are peaceful, it would be quite a feat to learn more about them. Perhaps even learn more about their technology and medicine. They have proven to be far superior to our own in the past. Mr. Warner, Mrs. Dubois, how possible would it be to keep this mission a secret to our neighbors?"

The Secretary of State looked flabbergasted, but grudgingly replied, "If we pool some resources, completely possible, sir."

Mr. Warner had grown quiet, but nodded to confirm Mrs. DuBois's assumption.

The President smirked, and looked at the trio reluctantly.

"Our national security rests in the assurance that these are a friendly people, as you three say. I want not one of these creatures brought back here, understood? You and a team of scientists that Mr. Weldenburg selects will travel to this other dimension and gather exploratory information. But that's all. Got it?"

The three smiled, and answered in unison, "Got it."

The President turned his chair away from them, sighing. "Good Luck, and God Speed, Mr. Thorndyke."

Upon exiting the Oval Office, Chuck grinned and pumped his fist into the air. "Alright! We got our clearance. Not exactly the clearance we had in mind, but at least we're going, right?"

Chris and Helen grinned at Chuck as they walked, and the adolescent boy put his arms behind his head, puzzled, "It seemed almost too easy, don't you think? The President just caved in after talking to Mr. Weldenburg, despite all that talk from his cabinet."

"He's an adventurer at heart, I'll bet," Chuck said, nodding his head in agreement with himself. "Lighten up, Chris. Be thankful."

"Yes, be thankful."

The trio turned around and found the scientist in question towering over them. He was grinning that same grin, "I've already been talking to the President about this issue behind closed doors. As soon as I heard the rumors I jumped at the opportunity to endorse this idea. In fact I've already chosen a crew for you. Pack well, but light. We are leaving first thing in the morning."

"The morning? But we just got the Portal working. We haven't even tested it yet..!" Helen exclaimed.

"Rewards do not come to those who are overly cautious, my dear," Replied Mr. Weldenburg, "And since I am under direct orders from the President I don't think it would be wise to go against me. We meet at six A.M. tomorrow morning. Get a good night's sleep, alright? I'll introduce you to the crew then."

Before any of them could answer the man waved and disappeared down another corridor of the enormous White House. Upon his departure Chris shot a dirty look at the floor.

"Something's off about him."

"I agree," Helen scoffed.

The grey-haired Thorndyke brought his hand to his chin, and 'hmm'ed aloud as their feet stumbled onto the marble surface of the 'lobby', "He's a bit over-enthusiastic, but what choice do we have? This is our only ticket to the other side. We'll just have to make due."

* * *

><p>Six A.M.<p>

"Way too early…" Chuck groaned, stretching his arms out to the sides, "I'm eager to get to the next dimension and all, but for cryin' out loud: would it kill these people to let us sleep in?"

"Your luggage, as you requested, sir," responded Mr. Tanaka, setting down a dark blue backpackers' pack next to Chuck. The scientist began to rummage through the pack slowly, inventory on each item he had packed. Everything, he mumbled, had to be secured for this trip.

Chris smiled sleepily, not responding to his grandfather's complaints, and rubbed his eyes gingerly with his gloved hands. Everyone going on this 'mission' was dressed in backpacking wear. Nobody knew what to expect, or where they would end up, for that matter. It was best to dress for anything.

"Trouble sleeping, Master Chris?" Tanaka asked as he handed the boy an orange pack. Chris grinned, taking it from the butler and shrugging it on. He had already inventoried his things ten times, during the night.

"Too excited to sleep," He replied, his expression widening.

"I hear you," Helen said, rolling up. She was also dressed in waterproof clothing, and her green pack was clipped into the straps on her chair. She shot Chris a double thumbs-up. "I'm so psyched! I didn't sleep a wink!"

The boy began to respond, but was interrupted by another. Mr. Weldenburg approached them, dressed from head to toe in what looked like heavy duty safari gear. His backpack was huge, and all sorts of tools were hanging out of it. He was taking this very seriously.

"Good Morning, co-workers!" He said, much too energetically, "Let us all go and meet the crew, yes? Oh, dear…"

He frowned when he saw Helen. "I did not know you were coming…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Helen asked.

"Nothing, just…" Mr. Weldenburg hesitated. "Well, with your impairment, you might…"

"Slow you down?" Helen finished bluntly.

"…Yes."

"It won't be a problem," Chuck insisted firmly, standing behind Helen. "She goes. Or none of us do. And you need us."

Mr. Weldenburg bit his lip, as if holding back what he truly wanted to say, "Alright then. Over here, if you will."

There were three other members of Weldenburg's 'specifically selected' group that were to be following them into the Portal. There was Mary Michaels, who had a doctorate in Psychology and specialized in Psychological research, Brent Kilmer, an anthropologist who taught at a prestigious college in the United Kingdom, and Jen Rogers, a biologist who specialized in cataloging rare species of biological life. Together the four of them made up a research team that was to survey the planet they were travelling to, the people, the plants, and their culture. Then there was Chuck, Chris, and Helen. Chuck and Chris had been pressed (but not ordered) to gather technological information. Helen hadn't been given any directions, since she was not believed to be coming, but now fell in with the same assignment. The prospect of being on a 'mission' was both exciting and disappointing.

"Alright…" Chris said, standing at the control consol in front of the machine. "Here goes."

He pressed the button and again the procession of panels and lasers appeared between the gates. The engines roared, and the brightness became blinding. Everyone shielded their eyes until they heard the whine of turbines lessen. When they opened them, they were greeted with the swirling gate of colors.

"It's beautiful…" Helen murmured.

"Magnificent…" Weldenburg said, grinning.

"We should get going," Chris explained. "The Portal only has enough power to last for a couple of minutes at a time." He walked up to the crew and handed them each a necklace with a pendant attached. "The Portal has a set date to bring us back, a couple of months from now. When that happens, it will lock on to the energy signature in these pendants. It's our only way back."

"Interesting…" Weldenburg said, putting his on. The rest of the crew did the same, "Well, then: Into the Abyss!"

The group lined up at the entrance of the gateway, each grabbing the other's hand. Contact ensured they all be transported to the same location.

"Alright! Here we go!" Chuck said, smirking. The group walked forward, into the portal. Chris couldn't help but smile. After six years of absence he would finally be able to see his friends. Not only that, he would be able to see the world that they had described to them. The flowers, the different plants, the places they lived. And the moon. For some reason, he longed to see the moon there. He remembered, in a conversation once, one of the last conversations he had had with one of them, about how the moon was the same in both worlds. He imagined stepping into that world and seeing them all, one by one, his friends: Cream, Cheese, Amy, Knuckles, Tails, and Sonic. And the sky, beautiful like they had all described it, above them. And everything would be alright again. As they entered the portal he closed his eyes, and as the woosh and whirl of time and space rushed around him, he imagined everything being alright again.

But when it became silent, and he opened them, all was not.


	2. Not What You Expected, Kid

Chapter 2: Not What You Expected, Kid

The first thing that hit him was the smell. As soon as the portal's distortion ceased his senses were bombarded with it. It was like a garbage dump, full of rotten grass and potent chemicals. Soiled eggs seemed to linger in the air, accompanied by a hiss. Gas leak. This all registered in his mind within a second, but the horrible odor delayed him from opening his eyes. His anticipation had been replaced by hesitation. Slowly, though, he peeled his lids from his corneas and forced himself to view the new world.

It was dark, and directly in front of him there was a mass that took up his entire field of vision. Chris looked up, and realized that it was a building, towering high above them. And it was in shambles. The concrete was broken up, the windows were shattered, and the steel rebar protruded like a skeleton reaching from the grave. The building had been subject to immense deterioration and multiple beatings. It looked like someone had condemned it and had started to bulldoze, but then gave up and walked away.

It looked like a war zone.

Chris took a step forward to examine the rebar, and found his feet caught on something. The scraping of tin came to his ears and as he looked down he found himself ankle-deep in trash. Weeds entangled with old cans and scrap wire, creating a plain of metal grass. Chris pulled his feet out of the entanglement, struggling with the clingy wire. When he was free he looked about, and spotted the gas leak a couple hundred feet away, attached to yet another decrepit building. The human boy bit his lip.

All the buildings looked this way. Every last structure seemed to have been brought up from the underworld, and placed here despite their rot. The iron bars stood like ghosts in the wind, and pipes snaked along like dried-out veins, connecting all these buildings and supplying them with chemicals they no longer needed. The result was a toxic-smelling medley of fumes and oxygen. It hung down in a greenish hue and called to the contents of Chris's stomach. He slowly put his hand up to his mouth.

"Oh My God…" he heard Helen's voice from behind him. "What _is_ this place? Where are we?"

The group was situated in what looked like a downtown market-like area. The roads were small, but open, and down the street Chris could see the nearly completely deteriorated remains of some wooden shops. Curtains that had once held life in the second and third stories of the buildings now hung like rags, swinging back and forth with the updrafts that passed through. It was lifeless. There was nothing about this world that suggested Sonic and his friends lived here. It wasn't beautiful. It was ugly. And the sky...he glanced up into the toxic haze….you couldn't even see the sky.

"Perhaps our calculations were off," Chuck said, bending down and picking through the trash, "and we were sent someplace else."

"I'll hear nothing of it, Charles," Sounded Mr. Weldenburg's voice. He was already thirty feet away, placing a hand on the ruined shops, "I'd rather we weren't stuck in some strange desolate wasteland of a world for a few months. Let's keep an open mind," Then he grinned, looking at Chris. It was as if he felt joy in seeing the boy's disappointment. "Not quite what you expected though, huh kid?"

"Yes, after all," came the voice of Brent, the anthropologist. He had out a camera phone and was taking snapshots, "Your friends had enemies, and if this is merely a city, perhaps this is a wasted culture, taken out by a war." His English accent sounded silly somehow, sticking out among their Northern ones. In the distance Jen Rogers was scooping a sample of the dead weeds into a test tube. They were fanning, but moving forward.

"Come on, guys, let's keep up with them," Chris said, beginning to follow.

"Wait! Chris, oh jeez…" Helen pushed the stick of her chair forward, but the trash held her in place. The batteries on her wheels whined in protest to her coaxing. "I'm stuck…"

"What's all this commotion?" Waldenburg had suddenly appeared just as Chris reached Helen. "Oh dear, I _knew_ something like this would happen…"

"No way she can maneuver through all this garbage," Chris said, and began unstrapping her pack from the back of the chair, "Are you up for a piggy-back ride?"

"Oh, Chris, You can't carry my all this way. I'm too heavy…"

"Nonsense, you're light as a feather. Now come on," Chris held out his hand, and Helen reluctantly took it. The young Thorndyke dipped down and maneuvered Helen onto his back. The chair folded up, and was given to Mary, who had the least amount of gear with her. Weldenburg took Helen's pack and shouldered it. It looked more like a large purse on his giant shoulders.

"Thanks, Chris. Maybe I should've stayed home after all," Helen said, her expression dreadful.

"No way. Come on Helen, none of us expected the ground to be flooded with this much crap."

"I guess so…"

"Hey guys! Come check this out!"

Mary Michaels was a couple hundred feet ahead of them now, and was waving to them. As they closed in they began to hear strange sounds, like machinery working. It got louder and louder, until they approached Mary and saw what was beyond.

"This is no ghost town," She stated. Ahead of them was something that looked sort of like a trash processing station. Machinery and gears were turning, ushering forward on a large conveyor belt huge piles of scrap metal. They came to an opening and were compressed, while a large ploom of smoke rose steadily from an exhaust stack.

"But who's operating it?" asked Chuck, looking about. Indeed, from afar there seemed to be no people there. Only the movement of metal. Chris squinted his eyes. They were far away, but he could still see pretty well. Then he spotted it. Along the conveyor belt lay huge piles of trash, and in them there was movement. Hundreds of them were sifting through the trash, sorting it. But they weren't people.

"They look like droids." Chris said. "Let's get a closer look."

The group moved forward to another building and hid behind it. It was about a hundred feet closer than their previous vantage point. Chris looked again, not with a much better view. These droids were small, but possessed the features of humans, in a way. However, they also looked….animalian. Chris frowned, and turned around.

"They look….like Sonic. And Tails, and Amy, like everyone. They are like robot versions of them, but there are many more kinds of species." He turned back and looked at them, dread growing in his gut.

"Why make droids that look like them?" Jen asked.

"Psychologically, robots have always been created in the image of man. Perhaps these robots were created in the image of the alien race," Mary suggested.

"These creatures suggest taking a step forward. They are more like replicas, not so much 'created in the image of'," Wildenburg said, leaning up against the building.

Helen had been gazing at these robots with an intuitive eye, and now scrunched her face up with controversy. "They look…sad, somehow. I know that's impossible but they do."

"Something's very wrong here," Chuck said. A grimace carved its way onto his face, a grimace that echoed the feeling of each member of the group, it seemed. They began to back away from the factory. Finding activity in the city did not provide a relief, but rather a suspicion that this place was unsafe.

"INTRUDER DETECTED. IDENTIFY YOURSELVES."

The seven of them turned, coming face-to-face with a pack of five huge robots. They were a silver-blue color, and unlike the other robots were shaped like humans, despite their wide, coned heads. They held what looked like laser guns in their hands, and their thin display strips for eyes were fixated on the humans.

"HUMANS, IDENTIFY YOURSELVES." One of them warned. "FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN YOUR DESTRUCTION."

"Oh, bullocks, what do we do?" Brent hissed.

"What all good men do in situations such as these," Wildenburg said, pressed up against the wall. "Run."

The group split. Chris ran with Helen against his back towards the windy alleyways filled with pipes. He hoped, since he could not travel as fast, that it would give them an advantage. Close behind was Chuck, who also could not run quite that fast. They heard the cries of the robots behind them before something flashed past them and hit the far wall. A spray of concrete rained down on them before they reached the pipes. Chris and Chuck ran into a wall shrouded in darkness, bracing themselves with their hands. Both were breathing heavily, and Helen's weight was starting to take its toll on Chris.

"Criminey!" Chuck exclaimed. He was huffing and puffing, and kneeled down to catch his breath. "When I said I wanted to go on an adventure again, this is not what I had in mind."

In the far distance a siren began to blare, and it started to spread through the entire city. It echoed off the barren walls and called to whatever other robotic creatures were out there. Chris cursed under his breath. No chance of hiding now.

"They…might be Eggman's robots," Chris adjusted himself so that Helen sat more squarely on his back. His muscles ached, but he knew putting Helen down was out of the question. If they were found, they'd be shot before he could pick her back up.

"They look nothing like the robots we saw on Earth…" Chuck responded.

"But Eggman was on Earth, using the resources he had at hand. He probably has more resources here. Or, since it's been so many years, maybe he changed his style to something more…sinister."

"What about the others, guys? How are we going to meet back up?" Helen's voice sounded worried in Chris's ear.

"I don't know, Helen…Maybe we could-"

Something shifted behind them, and before Chris could finish his sentence a red pulse of laser flashed and hit the wall next to his face. He backed up, stunned, and almost fell onto the ground.

"INTRUDER LOCATED, SECTOR E SECTION 5," droned the robot, who was now tearing through the piping. It hissed and sprayed steam into their hiding spot, obscuring their vision.

"RunRunRun!" Chuck shouted, and the three of them exited the street and turned onto another. Behind them Chris heard the clanking of the bots. It sounded like there was more than one again. Helen confirmed, shouting, "They're gaining! Move it!" as they rounded another corner. As the street came into view Chris's face faded to horror.

Dead End.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Chris said frantically as he looked around for a way out. The wall in front of them was not climbable. It was too tall, too slick. There was nothing else around them. Simply deteriorated brick that turned to dust upon his grip. Behind them the clunk of the robots halted. Chris, Chuck, and Helen turned to meet their demise.

"This was one lame vacation," Chuck said sarcastically.

Chris couldn't help but grin at his grandfather's whims, even in the face of death, "Yeah, we didn't even get to see them."

Helen's grip tightened on Chris's neck. "…I'll be last," was all she said, and the fear in her voice tore through his heart. It was true. They would take out Chris and Chuck first, then finish her off. She would have to watch…

"I'm so sorry, Helen…"

"INTRUDERS ISOLATED. TERMINATE," the robot droned, and raised its laser gun to them. Chris closed his eyes.

Instead of a shot, there came a crash. Chris mentally blanked, forgetting for a moment that he could open his eyes.

"PRIORITY THREE B –_SKWARK!_" The sound of electricity and fired vocal chords made Chris open his eyes, as did the others. The robots, their executioners, lay in broken heaps where they had previously stood. The trio looked on, baffled.

"…What-"

"…Happened?" Helen finished Chris's sentence for him, her grip on his neck lessening.

"Look!" Chuck hissed, stepping back. In the green haze another figure was stepping forward. Its footsteps mirrored those of the previous robots. Chris and Chuck took a cautious step back, waiting.

"Who...W-who's there?" Chris demanded. He did not sound as confident as he would have liked. The figure then appeared from the initial layer of haze, and stood in front of them looking just as perplexed as they must have. Only their reasons were slightly different. They had never seen anything like her.

"…A cyborg?" Chuck queried to himself, inaudible to their savior.

"Calm down, Sugah. Ah ain't gonna hurt none o' ya'll," came her female voice. It was rich with a southern accent. She was a rabbit, buttercup colored, with short blonde hair and green eyes. She was…like them. The others. Part of Chris felt relieved. It meant they were in the right world. Another part of him was disturbed, for the rabbit was half clad in metal similar to that of the robots working at the waste factory. Her legs and her left arm were completely enveloped.

"Who are you?" Helen asked. Chris could also hear a bit of relief in her voice.

"The name's Bunnie Rabbot, Sugah," the rabbot replied, "But Ah think Ah should be askin' ya'll that question. What's a couple o' Overlanders like you doin' in Robotropolis?"

"We…..we're…" Chris started, vaguely wondering what 'Overlanders' were, but then gave up and shrugged. "We're lost." There was no point explaining that he was from another dimension. This person probably wouldn't believe him.

"Uh-huh," said Bunnie, arms crossing. Her metal arm was at least twice the size of her real one. It looked peculiar seeing them side-by-side. "Ah can see _that_. Ah _meant_ what kinda person just walks into the Doctor's city lookin' like they're goin' camping? Are ya'll mad?"

Doctor. Doctor. Doctor Eggman?

"Well what are _you_ doing here?" Helen asked defensively.

"Ah'm s'posed to be heah," she replied. Then she turned, as if hearing the sirens for the first time. "Ah, well, Ah guess it don't mattah. Ah can't leave ya here anyhoo. You got friends, raight? Sally-girl found 'em runnin' clear the other way."

"Yes, they're with us!" Chris exclaimed, "Are they okay?"

"Some fella with a Cat-Country accent got shot in the arm, but he'll be okay. It just scraped 'im." She grinned. "Sugah-hog picked 'em up and sped off with him to get patched up. Boy, was _that_ a funny sight to see, him carryin' that long dangly human."

"Sugar-_hog_?" Helen murmured.

"Sped off?" Chris responded. The pair exchanged glances, while Chuck walked up to Bunnie and shook her hand.

"Thank you very much, Bunnie, for saving us," He said. "I'm Chuck. Thorndyke, and this is my grandson Christopher and our friend Helen. May I ask you something? I'm a scientist, and I am fascinated by your prosthetics. How do they work?"

Oh, gramps. Right on to machine talk, as always.

Bunnie raised an eyebrow and frowned slightly. "Ain't prosthetics, Mr. Thorndyke. They're roboticized."

"Roboti-what?"

Bunnie shook her head. "If ya'll don't get it, Ah can't explain it at the moment. Them SWAT-bots'll be here any minute. We've gotta high-tail it back to Knothole, quick. Is your friend there hurt?"

Chuck glanced back to Helen, whom Bunnie was pointing at with her large, metal hand, "No, she's not. The trash was too thick for her wheelchair."

Bunnie nodded and, despite the danger that loomed all around them, grinned. "Ah'right then, we gotta do this carefully. Follow mah lead. Let's go!"


	3. Reunion

Chapter 3: Reunion

Robotropolis, the wretched city that the group had been transported to, was not the extent of this world. No, rather, it was only a small part of it. Thank God.

Bunnie Rabbot led the trio through the dark labyrinth of decrepit buildings within this small part. As she explained, the part of the city they were in was the original city created after Dr. Robotnik had taken over. He and Dr. Eggman, Chris figured, were one and the same. The story, though, was so much more terrible than what had been described to him. As they walked, Bunnie talked softly about the Grand Mobotropolis that had stood in this wasteland's place fourteen years beforehand, and how Dr. Robotnik had made it this way. She spoke about it offhandedly though, is if she were expecting the three of them to know about it. It had been a monumental event in their history, apparently, an event that had ended the long reign of the Acorn Monarchs. The only heir left to the throne was 'Sally-girl', who would be waiting for them.

"We're going to meet your Queen, then?" Helen asked, eyes lighting up.

"Well, Sally-girl ain't no queen at the moment, technically, but she wouldn't let ya call her one anyhoo," Bunnie said. She met Helen's eyes, and some girlish excitement that neither Chris nor Chuck understood seemed to ignite within her, "But yeah: You are!"

Robotropolis, she went on to explain, could harbor no living inhabitants. "The only people left there are the Robians," Bunnie lamented, "And they may never make it home."

"Robians?" Chris asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, the roboticized Mobians. Ah'm only a half, ya see."

Chris glanced at Bunnie's robotic limbs, and suddenly the horrible reality of her words set in. His realization, it seemed, had been felt by Helen and Chuck.

"They….looked sad…" Helen said, eyes widening. She brought her hand up to her mouth.

Chuck stopped in the middle of their walk. They were nearing the end of the city now, and the haze was clearing up. Beyond them there seemed to be something green, something…more beautiful than this reality, perhaps.

"You call yourselves Mobians, as we call ourselves humans. And you say you are 'roboticized' halfway. If those people are 'Robians', meaning they've been 'roboticized'….well, what exactly does that entail?"

Bunnie frowned, stopping to turn around. It had been slow going, but now that they were on the outer edge of the city the danger of being caught was much less. And these Overlanders, for some reason, had no idea about anything she was talking about. She sighed, and as she spoke her eyes held much pain and suffering in them.

"'Roboticization' is a thang Robotnik uses on the people he catches. Ah don't know exactly how it works, you'd have to ask Rotor 'bout that. All Ah know is that Mobians go in as flesh, and come out as robots. Mindless, totally under the control of the doctah," She smiled weakly, "Ah almost got roboticized back in the day, but Sugah-hog and Rotor saved me half way through."

Silence filled the air for a moment, as the three took this information in. Their eyes seemed to drift away from Bunnie and fall to the ground, remembering what they had seen. Robots picking through trash…looking sad…

"You mean, all those robots, in the factories, were once living beings?" Chris asked shakily.

"They're still alive, sugah," Bunnie responded, "They're just made of gears instead of flesh. Sugah-hog's uncle got back his mind, but he's still a Robian. It's all complicated, Ah'm not sure how it works. It just is, and we all deal with it."

Something inside Chris wanted him to ask Bunnie who 'sugah-hog' was, but the circumstances made the query inappropriate. This world, though. There was no way this world belonged to his friends. It was so…dark, so sad…

"Is there any way to reverse it?"

"There is, but we don't have the raight tools to make a 'de-roboticizer' yet So if yer caught and roboticized, roboticized is how you stay for now."

"And how do you avoid getting caught, if Robotnik has all these resources at his disposal?"

"That's what Ah'm about to show ya, sugah," Bunnie said, grinning. She turned around and headed straight for the opening in the darkness; the edge of the city. Chris shifted again to keep Helen on his back, and followed his grandfather and the rabbot. The edge was so close, he could now see what was beyond it.

"Robotnik has his machines, but we have the planet," Bunnie said, gesturing towards what lay in front of them. It was a great plain, after a wasteland of dirt, that led into a giant wall of trees. All kinds of trees, in all kinds of sizes.

"The Great Forest provides us with plenty of covah," Bunnie said, and after checking the perimeter for guards, gestured for them to follow her. Security, having been searching for them inside the city, was nowhere to be seen on the border. They made it into the trees without a problem. Before entering the forest, Chris looked up. Up above them, in the direction of the forest, the sky lay out in front of them with the same blue that unfolded in his own world. He grinned before the trees covered it up.

The forest must have been what the others were talking about when they had described this world. It was so beautiful. The trees and the foliage spread out like a green garden, enticing Chris to lie down and spend the rest of the day just daydreaming in it. But they trekked on, for Bunnie was eager to get home. Wherever that was.

"Ya see, our home is a secret, sugah, so ya'll can't tell anyone where it is," she said, pushing through the trees, "There are two entrances: One is over the stream. It's technically the 'back' entrance. The othah is the slide."

"Slide?"

"Yesiree, Sugah," Bunnie was now walking about as if looking for something. Then she came upon a particular tree that the rabbot approached, and started sifting through the branches. Wrapped around one of the branches was a vine. Bunnie pulled it down and yanked it hard. About fifty feet away, an old tree stump opened and produced its hollow innards to the world. Bunnie replaced the vine.

"That's the entrance!" She said, grinning, "Now who wants to go first?"

"Fascinating…" Chuck said, walking up to the tree stump. He poked his head in, inspecting the sides of the stump, "This is a tunnel to your village?"

"Yep, now LOOK OUT BELOW!" Bunnie shouted, and she pushed Chuck's backside so that he fell headfirst into the stump. Chris and Helen gasped and ran up beside her.

"What'd you do that for?" Chris shouted.

"Oh, he'll be fine, sugah, there's padding down there," Bunnie said, "Now it's your turn!"

Chris blinked, and then looked down. "Helen…?"

"Help me in!" She responded excitedly, hitting him lightly. Chris lifted her off of his back and set her down, sitting on the edge of the slide. The relief to his back was instantaneous, and he sighed aloud.

"Alright, HERE I GO!" Helen shouted, and laughing, she pushed herself into the slide and disappeared from sight.

Chris blinked, peering into the blackness, "I dunno…"

"Oh sugah, just GO!" Bunnie said, and pushed Chris in the backside as well. Suddenly he was falling, no sliding, on his front headfirst down the tunnel. He closed his eyes and yelled, until suddenly his momentum was stopped and he had a mouth full of what could have been…straw?

"Ahahaha! That was so fun! Chris, did you like it?" Chris lifted his head and saw Helen staring down at him, a big smile on her face. Her blue eyes glimmered with so much joy; he couldn't help but smile back.

"It was a bit bumpy," He said softly, and then looked around. "Where are we?"

"The Freedom Fighter Headquarters," Came a voice. Chris glanced to its origin. They were in an underground room, it seemed, which held consoles and a big round table in the middle. Standing in front of that table, next to an empty old wheelchair, stood another Mobian that he had never seen before. She appeared to be some kind of squirrel or chipmunk. She had chestnut colored fur and short auburn hair that fell in her eyes. Those eyes matched the blue in her vest and boots, and held the spirit of both an adventurer and a leader. Without any introduction Chris knew that this was Princess Sally Acorn, the heir to the throne Robotnik had uprooted. He pushed himself up, and dusted off the straw from the cushion bed under the slide. His grandfather was already standing, and admiring this small but powerful-looking woman.

She smiled, and her smile held something genuine in it that Chris rarely saw. He only vaguely noticed the _plop_ Bunnie's form made in the straw as she began to speak.

"Welcome to Knothole Village. My name is Sally Acorn, and I've been expecting you ever since we found your comrades. They told us all about you three, and so I thought I would make things easier by greeting you here," She pulled the wheelchair from beside her and walked toward them, "I heard about your friend's necessity, so I had someone dig this old thing up. It's a bit rusty, but it's the only human-sized one that we have."

"Thank you very much," Helen said, and Chris helped her into the wheelchair. It wasn't powered, and so she tested rolling it about a bit manually. "It's perfect. I'll have to build up my arms a bit, though."

Sally smiled, looking relieved, "I'm just glad the thing works! Though I'm sure we could've built one for you. We have a lot of talented people here." Sally nodded to Bunnie, who grinned as she dusted herself off. Then , though her smile didn't fade, she spoke in a tone that conveyed seriousness.

"Now then, to get right down to things, your 'colleagues' told us that the seven of you come from a different dimension."

Oh great, Chris thought. Weldenburg spilled the beans, most likely, in his over-enthusiastic need to share information. She thinks we are crazy. That's why she's acting all nice.

Sally raised an eyebrow, as if this whole story amused her. Yep, there we go. Crazy, "One man in your group said that you were scientists who traveled through a 'portal machine' to come to this world. You apparently had contact with our species beforehand and were curious as to our culture and origins. He had a particular interest in a being who he called 'the quickster'." She paused, folding her arms over her chest, "You realize how high your claims seem…"

"Yes, we know, Princess, but please: let us explain in a little more detail…" Chuck began.

Sally held up her hand, smiling. " Please, just call me Sally, and it's quite alright, Chuck Thorndyke. I don't need all the details. I've already been told them all. Many, many times."

Chuck scrunched up his face, "What do you mean?"

Sally grinned, "At first I didn't believe the scientist, the Wildenburg one. I was about to disregard his tale until one of my Freedom Fighters, 'the quickster' himself, recognized your names, Chuck, Chris, and Helen. It was only then that I realized: _you're_ the people he kept on talking about when he came back two years ago."

Bunnie blinked, and then gaped at the human trio, "_These_ are sugah-hog's friends?"

Chris felt a smile tearing at the corners of his mouth. Sugah-hog, 'the quickster'….

Sally reached out a hand to Chris, and he shook it, grinning.

"Pleasure to meet you, Chris Thorndyke. I've heard so much about you. Now, if you three would like to follow me, there are some people I'd like you to meet. And there are some others who are very excited to see you."

The squirrel turned and walked towards the other end of the room. Excited, Chris grabbed the handlebars on Helen's wheelchair and followed the Princess. Chuck was right behind them, eyeing the computer console in the wall as they passed.

The room converged on a door that Sally opened, and as they passed through they found themselves in a large hut, furnished and equipped with a couple more monitors. Everything, Chris noticed, seemed miniaturized. It was all built to scale for their Mobian race, which seemed to stand at about 4 feet tall at the most. This was why Wildenburg, Jen, Mary, and Brent looked quite silly sitting at the circular table in the middle. They were too big for the chairs they sat in, like parents sitting in the kindergarten chairs on Parent Conference day.

"Thank God!" Exclaimed Jen, breathing in a sigh of relief.

"We were afraid the bots got you." Brent said, leaning back in his chair. His arm was wrapped in a sling, and a small patch of red had soaked through on his forearm.

"Yes, very good thing you guys are alright. You're the only way they'll believe us, ya know," Wildenburg said offhandedly, reaching into his pocket and lighting himself a smoke. Sally wrinkled up her nose instantly, and Chris realized that the Mobians must have an augmented sense of smell.

"Mr. Wildenburg, I must ask you to refrain from smoking in any of our facilities," Sally said, "For safety – our huts are made from wood and have thatched roofs – as well as for health reasons."

Mr. Wildenburg hopped up from his chair, "Of course, Princess! In that case, let us all go outside. I'm dying to get to know your colleagues more than I already have."

"By all means," Sally said, gesturing towards the door. The others got up. Mary and Brent already had their notebooks out and pencils attached to the binding. Jen was looking curiously at the thatch that made up the roof. Wildenburg had already stepped outside.

Chris, Helen, and Chuck followed the ground squirrel towards the exit of the hut, itching in anticipation. As they reached the door Sally called out for an unseen group to line up. Then they passed through the door, and came face-to-face with the 'Freedom Fighters'.

"This is Knothole's, and the resistant's, secret weapon, the Freedom Fighters," Sally said proudly, gesturing to her team, "We are a small organization that works to directly undermine the imperialist advances of Dr. Robotnik in our world. We do this mostly through sabotage of his systems in Robotropolis."

The group that stood before them, highly acclaimed by the Princess, looked somewhat ragtag. They were all shapes, sizes, and species. Saying they were small was an understatement. There were only six of them standing there, smaller than the science team of humans themselves. And these people were supposed to be the resistance for that entire grand city and its evil doctor. Chris grinned as he saw them.

"Rotor Walrus is our tech expert," Sally said, and a large purple walrus with a ballcap and engineer's vest waved at them, smiling.

"Antoine D'Coolette is member of the royal guard, as you can see by his vest and sword," a Burnt-Orange Coyote with slicked-back blonde hair and a guardsmen uniform bowed slightly.

"Bunnie Rabbot is the brawns behind the operation, and our resident hair expert," Sally said, adding the last part as a joke and a compliment (Mary Michaels and Brent scribbled violently in their notebooks). Their previous guide grinned, mocking a salute at them, and saying, 'Howdy'.

"And the last two," Sally said, smiling, "Well, I believe you know the last two."

Chris felt his grandfather's hand upon his shoulder as Sally introduced the two Mobians at the end of the line. He could see the corner of Helen's mouth upturned below him. He realized that he was smiling widely as well.

And the blue hedgehog and yellow kistune were returning those gestures.

"Sonic Hedgehog is our speed and stealth in the operation, as well as the team's decoy in high-security missions. Miles 'Tails' Prower is not officially a Freedom Fighter, because of his age, but is Rotor's right-hand man in tech and our aviations expert."

"We did it," Chuck said, grinning. His hand gave Chris's shoulder a littler squeeze. Chris knew exactly what his grandfather was feeling. His grandfather had been so fond of their other-worldly companions, especially Tails. The two had worked late together finding solutions to the various Earth-Endangering problems that had arisen with Eggman's schemes. When they had left his grandfather had lost a best friend.

And so had Chris. He felt back then that he had a best friend in the hedgehog that stood before them now, looking slightly taller and older than he had before, despite the huge height gain Chris had gotten on him. Though Chris had saved Sonic from drowning seven years ago their relationship had been characterized by the hedgehog's countless ventures to save the youngster. And at last, when it was time for him to go home, Chris had done Sonic a disservice by shutting down the only means he had of returning to his world. He was so immature back then. A child, desperate for his parents' attention. However, now he was different. He was older, more experienced. And that was the reason, truly, that he had come back. To renew their friendship, and leave it untainted by his childish actions.

"It's been a long time," Chris said, grinning, to Sonic and Tails, "And it's a pleasure to meet you all."

"We're so excited to see your world and meet all of your friends!" Helen exclaimed, delighted. Bunnie grinned, and Chris suddenly had a feeling that those two would be fast friends.

Sally walked forward and clapped her hands together, "And we are very excited to finally meet the friends that Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Cream talked about so vividly after their strange disappearance here two years ago. You are welcome to stay in Knothole Village as long as you like. As we speak a couple of huts are being prepared for your stay. Since we don't have too many resources at our disposal, we have two big huts – one for the ladies and one for the men. I hope that doesn't make things too inconvenient."

"No, it doesn't, thank you very much," Jen Rogers said, with the approving nods of Helen and Mary.

"Wait, did you say two years?" Chuck asked with puzzlement.

Sally nodded, "Yes."

"It's been six years for us…" Chris said, putting his hand to his chin. The Mobians all exchanged glances.

"We thought you guys looked a little old," Sonic said, grinning despite the strangeness of the situation. It was the first time he had spoken, probably out of respect for the Princess's introductions. His voice was a little deeper than it had been, but only slightly. He had aged just barely, and if Chris calculated correctly, was now seventeen. Tails was also grinning, once an imitation of Sonic's constant confident air, but now starting to show his own personality as a young fox of ten.

"And I thought you looked a little young," Chuck said, returning the grin, "It seems our calculations were little off, regarding the years. We're new at this dimension-hopping thing," Chuck chuckled, "Haha! Oh well! At least we got the right planet, right?"

Sally smiled and said, "Alright, alright, enough of this formal pleasantry stuff. Freedom Fighters, you are dismissed. I'm pretty sure Sonic and Tails are dying to give our friends the grand tour."

Tails grinned, and jumped excitedly, "You bet!"

"Dinner is in an hour. I'm pretty sure with Sonic's tour style you'll be done long before that, though. The others will rejoin us in the Mess Hall where we can get better acquainted. Until then," Sally waved and walked off. The other Freedom Fighters each gave their own wave and dispersed in their separate direction, some talking excitedly about their new guests. Sonic and Tails stayed behind, and as soon as the group left, rushed up to the human party.

"Chuck!" Tails exclaimed, running up to the old scientist. Chuck bent down and embraced his old friend tightly, before they broke away and grinned at one another.

"It's so good to see you!" Chuck exclaimed, "I got so tired working with all those other boring engineers, with their rules and regulations."

Tails grinned, and scratched his nose with pride, "Well, the mechanics in the X Tornado _were _cutting edge. Too bad I couldn't have taken it with me. Do you still have it?"

"It's still at the mansion," Chuck said, grinning. "The military wanted to integrate its technology into their fighter jets but I said 'No Way'. Nobody was getting their hands on that plane."

The two continued to chat excitedly. Chris chuckled, looking at them. Felt like old times. He was brought back to reality by someone clearing their throat, and turned to see Sonic standing right in front of himself and Helen.

He approached Helen first, extending a hand to her, which she took and clasped in both of hers.

"Hey, Helen!" Sonic said, grinning, "I almost didn't recognize you, you look so different. Very pretty."

Helen blushed, but kept her smile, "Thank you. And you haven't changed much, though it hasn't been that long for you. Oh, I'm so glad to see you again!" She bent forward, and the hedgehog stood on his tip-toes to embrace her. Their height difference, even when Helen was sitting, was a bit comical.

When they broke apart Helen wheeled to the side and Chris was left facing his childhood friend, grinning.

"Hey, Bud," Sonic said, hands on his hips, "Long time no see, eh? You got some inches on me."

Chris grinned, "Only a few, but you look a bit taller as well."

Sonic shrugged, "I guess. Too bad though, this is as tall as I get."

"It's tall enough, we're just giants." Chris extended his hand, and the hedgehog took it. The handshake seemed too formal though, and the pair seemed to decide that for an absence this long a hug was in order. Chris almost had to drop to one knee to do this, so the hug was quick and a little awkward. They laughed afterwards

"It's good to see you, Sonic," Chris said, with all seriousness intended.

Sonic nodded, equally serious, "Good to see you too, Pal. Can't wait to show you around. This place is boss!."

Chris laughed, and was suddenly bombarded by a hugging Tails who had jetted himself to Chris's height with his twin namesakes. The others laughed, as the reunion faded the scientists deemed it alright for them to join the crowd.

"We're so surprised! Happy, but surprised!" Tails exclaimed, "I don't understand how you guys did it…"

"Ask Chris, it was all his idea." Chuck said, grinning.

"Oh no, I helped. A lot," Helen interjected.

Chris grinned, "Yeah, I couldn't have done it without Helen. Without the both of you, actually. You see, before when we sent you back we used the power from a Chaos Emerald to _create_ the time/space distortion. The machine's only purpose was to focus the energy. So our obvious problem wasn't how to focus the energy, but how to create an energy source with the same Time/Space capabilities that the Chaos Emeralds had."

"The reason it took so long," Helen continued, "Was because we had very limited data. The first couple of years were spent going to all of the places we had been with you guys previously and analyzing the distortion caused by the emeralds. We had to translate the distortion the emeralds caused in ordinary machinery to data that could interpret the emerald's properties. Then we had to find a way to re-create it."

"But doing that required a lot of energy and resources," Chuck went on. "It wasn't until Helen and Chris were in the first year of college that we had enough evidence to present the project to the science board and ask for a grant. After that, the creation of the machine went rather smoothly, with a few hiccups in the final stages. Like, inputting the right environmental data, and figuring out how not to overload the machine upon the initial creation of the portal, where the most energy was expended."

"But we did it, and now we're here," Chris said, grinning. "For a couple of months, at the least."

"That's…incredible!" Tails murmured, "Do you have your research with you? I'd love to read it, and I bet Rotor would get a kick out of it too."

"Of course we have it. No way were we going to blow the science world's mind and not share the gold. After all, you guys were the inspiration!"

"Okay, okay, this is _fun_ stuff and all, but seriously, guys, the tour?" Sonic said, stifling a yawn. "You've eaten up ten minutes of my awesome tour-guide special. You can shove your brains together another time. Let's go, slow-moes!"

And Sonic was already walking away. Mr. Wildenburg was right behind him, it seemed, and the other scientists eagerly caught up. Chris, Helen, and Chuck followed, accompanied by Tails, who was still asking questions about the machine and how they had gotten here. As they continued walking, Chris glanced up at Sonic, who had become the center of attention as soon as he opened his mouth. The scientists around ate up every piece of knowledge they could consume. Mary switched her attention from Sonic to Tails, watching their reactions and their body movements, comparing them to that of a human. Jen and Brent listened intently to everything the hedgehog talked about. Brent took notes on the orientation of the village and asked plenty of questions regarding the history, which Sonic answered with gallant, exaggerated tales (Tails would then walk up to Brent and tell him what _really_ happened). Jen took snapshots of every plant she could find, and even a couple of the Mobians while they weren't looking. The longer the tour went on, the more interested the scientists became, and the more uneasy Chris felt. He did not necessarily mind the fact that these strangers were taking up the hedgehog and fox's time. No, instead he minded the fact that they treated them like…a display. At first glance their curiosity seemed innocent, especially to the two Mobians. However, Chris knew their motives. This was a science project; an expedition. Nothing more.

And Wildenburg. He was the most unnerving. He didn't seem interested in the terrain or the history of this place at all. What he was really interested in was the Mobians, and he didn't try to be inconspicuous about it either. When Tails spoke, the geneticist would look at him the way a field expert assesses a newly discovered species come back from extinction. He looked over all of the kitsune's features, especially his twin tails, with scrutiny. He followed Sonic around even more. He analyzed everything about the hedgehog. The way he walked, talked, pointed, turned, moved his ears, everything. And it also seemed, through the way his bold facial features would lift up, that he was pleased with what he saw. Chris felt a bit sickened. He was _appraising_ Sonic the Hedgehog, so close after their encounter, while Chris and the others were there to learn or to get re-acquainted.

And for that reason Chris didn't learn a thing about Knothole Village during those fifty minutes. He was too distracted, by these people, who hungered for knowledge and who were assigned on this mission for political reasons. So he walked along, and worried to himself.


	4. Diplomacy

Chapter 4: Diplomacy

_Knock Knock_

Rotor tore his eyes away from the bright glow of the monitor and found that he could barely see anything. Though it was daytime the Freedom Fighter HQ was always a bit dark, hidden in the side of the hill, and the monitor contrasted against the dim light.

"Yeah?" He said as his eyes adjusted. A figure walked in, his silhouette hedgehog-shaped. Rotor smiled and leaned back in his chair, "Hey, Sonic. What's up?"

"Sal told me to tell you to unglue your brain from the workbench and get some dinner," the hedgehog responded sassily, "What the heck are you doing anyways?"

Rotor turned back towards the monitor, "Oh, just going over one of the disks one of the humans – was it Chuck? – gave to Tails on their tour. It's really quite interesting, actually. They managed to replicate the energy signature of the Chaos Emeralds by bypassing the first ext-" Rotor cut himself off, remembering who he was talking to, and turned around. The hedgehog was staring at him with one eyebrow raised.

"…and you don't care," Rotor finished.

"In one ear, out the other, Rote," Sonic confirmed.

"Right. I thought so. Anyways, where is everyone?"

"Chris, Chuck, Helen, and…everyone else went to their huts to drop off their stuff. You wouldn't believe all the junk they fit in those packs. Anyways, I bumped into Sal on the way and she told me to get you. So I zipped over here and now you and I are here when we should be over there."

"Ah," Rotor said, getting the message. He ejected the disk and turned off the monitor, secretly planning to come back later and go over more data with Tails. He decided to leave his vest on the chair. His fur needed some airing out in the evening, now that the summer heat had subsided a bit. He shut off the dim lights and joined the hedgehog in the walk to the Mess Hall.

"I didn't get to meet them besides the formal intro, how're they?" Rotor asked.

"You'll see," Sonic, rolling his eyes.

Rotor noticed the hedgehog's actions and bit his lip, feigning fear. "Uh oh, should I run and hide? I thought they were your friends."

Sonic waved his hands as if to shake away what he had said, "No, no, not Chris, Chuck, and Helen. I don't have a problem with them. It's the _others_ that are weird."

"How so?"

"I dunno. They just are. They write down everything."

Rotor laughed, "Well, of course they do, Sonic. They're scientists, or so I've heard. It's their job."

Sonic frowned, "Yeah, well, it's weird. This one guy kept staring at us the whole time. The big tall dude."

"When we found them he said he was a geneticist. Maybe he, a normal human, was curious about the supersonic hedgehog and twin-tailed fox he had just met," Sonic shrugged in response, and Rotor patted him on the shoulder, "They're humans, they act differently than us."

"Not really," Sonic said, and pushed the doors open to the Mess Hall. The Mess Hall was not the only place for the residents of Knothole to get food. Many of the people had their own gardens next to their huts, and came at different times. Thus, the Hall was never too crowded. Tonight, however, was a different story. News had spread of the new guests, and everyone wanted a glance.

"Dang. Busy," Sonic remarked, and the two of them got a tray and stood in line. It took a while, Sonic tapping his foot the whole time, but eventually the two got their meals and moved on to the task of finding a place to sit. Almost every seat was filled.

"Hey, over here!" Sally's voice carried over the crowd, and the two Mobians walked over to where she was sitting. The Freedom Fighters and the humans were all at one table. Rotor found a spot next to Sally, and Sonic sat on the other side, a couple of spots down. Across from him, he realized, was Wildenburg, who smiled generously and offered him some salt.

"Thanks. So, how do you guys like the place so far?" Sonic asked, his questions and eyes directed at Chris, Helen, and Chuck. They sat two spots away from him, on the end, since Helen's chair didn't fit anywhere else.

"It's marvelous," Chuck extended. Chris, his mouth full, nodded energetically.

"Do you guys have every meal together?" Helen asked.

"Not every single meal, but at least once a day," Sally said, smiling. She took a sip of her water and leaned over so she could better see Helen, "It helps us brainstorm for upcoming missions."

Sonic shook his head, "Leave it to Sal to talk about the most boring parts of our day."

Sally raised an eyebrow at the hedgehog, "Boring? I'd say more than half of our most brilliant mission plans have been charted over this table. That, my friend, is not boring."

"Your culture, we've noticed already, places a lot of importance on group performance, rather than individual accomplishment…" Mary said, referring to Brent as her accomplice in her analysis.

"Well, of course," Sally answered, "We've been through a war. We have limited resources. Our best bet of survival is to stick together."

"And we're a team, sugah, don't forget that," Bunnie added, seated on the other side of Sally.

"Yes. Eet is our friendship that makes us such a well-workeeng group," Antoine stated. Chris and Helen exchanged glances, both intrigued by the French accent.

Sonic took a swig of his water and set the cup down on the tabletop. He glanced up, and saw Mr. Weldenburg was looking at him. Rather than look away, as most people would, Sonic held eye contact with the man. He continued to stare back, and his expression almost seemed to challenge the hedgehog. Then, as if nothing had happened, he broke away and glanced down the table.

"Princess Sally," he said, "Your species is a rather marvelous one, and I must admit: I am indeed curious, having never seen intelligent life form other than humans in my dimension."

Sally tore her attention from her other conversation and smiled at Weldenburg, "Is that so, Mr. Weldenburg? I'm afraid I can't share the same fascination with your species, as I have grown up knowing about their existence."

"Yes, so I've heard. How unfair, it seems, that my planet lacks the sophistication to house both species," he responded. "Which brings me to the actual object of our visit. When my colleagues and I heard that the Thorndykes were travelling to this new world, we jumped at the opportunity to tag along and learn. Frankly, while they are here to visit, we are really here to study. I was wondering if you would have any objection to that?"

Sally was turning her cup of water in her hands slowly, listening to the geneticist's words, "It depends on what type of studying you intend to do, sir."

"Nothing drastic," Weldenburg assured, "For example, Jen is a biologist and is interested in cataloging the different species of plants and Mobians that you know of. Brent is interested in the cultural history of your planet. Mary does her job simply by having a conversation with you all, as a psychologist, and I…well, I'm interested in your genetics, especially those of you who demonstrate some very unique talents."

Sally glanced at Sonic, who didn't notice. He was scarfing down a chili dog, as he did almost every dinner, and wasn't paying attention to the geneticist or her. He had lost his patience halfway through the man's short speech.

"I'm fine with your team observing our culture, so long as their motives extend only as far as pure curiosity," Sally said.

"Might we then mingle among the crowd?" Mary asked, again referring to Brent as her partner, "We would like to get to know some other people in your village."

"By all means," Sally said. She turned back to Weldenburg as the two got up and moved to the next table excitedly. With two of the humans gone the table was much less crowded. However the atmosphere had changed, though many didn't know why.

"Your field of study suggests something a little more invasive," Sally said bluntly.

Weldenburg raised his hands as if to surrender, "True, Princess. This is why I am asking you for permission to conduct my own studies. But I assure you, the invasiveness of the procedures stops at a pin-prick. All I ask for is a few blood samples from a couple members of your village, to compare against one another as well as against our own kind," He smiled, "After all, I expect that the differences in our species will not necessarily be revealed through the study of culture but rather through the study of our evolution."

"…You make an excellent point, Mr. Weldenburg," Sally said. "I also do not think our species differs that much mentally. Physical features are our most prominent difference, which had been enough to strain relations between our races in the past." She glanced at Chuck Thorndyke, the eldest of the group. Despite this man's authoritarian attitude, Sally had a feeling Chuck was really the leader of this team. He was, she knew for sure, on their side, being a friend of Sonic's in the past.

Chuck noticed this glance, and looked at Weldenburg carefully for a moment. Then he shrugged, "Mr. Weldenburg is a rather forward man, Miss Sally, but I assure you a simple blood test will do no harm to your people. We were specifically instructed not to bring anything back to Earth. Nothing can be or will be used to exploit your people. Our society values physical evidence too highly."

By now the entire table was paying keen attention to the negotiations being made. Even Sonic had set his chili dog down and was listening. Chris and Helen were now looking at Chuck warily. It was obvious they did not like the geneticist, but was it because of his personality or because of his motives?

"Very well," Sally said, after a moment of deliberation, "I will ask around the village for any volunteers. However, Mr. Weldenburg, realize that I will not force anybody to come forward."

"Oh, of course not. I'm not interested in doing science against someone else's will," He said earnestly.

Sally looked around the table. There were mixed emotions all around. Chuck seemed indifferent, though he was a scientist, while the adolescents looked uncomfortable. The Mobians seemed uneasy as well, excluding Rotor, who also looked indifferent, and Antoine, who looked angry. Sally sighed. She couldn't base her decision off of the others' reactions right now. This was more than just a negotiation about a science project. This was a first negotiation between two races. Whether their new relationship started out on a good foot or a bad one was up to Sally. To simply refuse this man's request with no real reason other than her gut told her so was impossible. She had no idea of knowing whether her suspicions of this man were real or biased, since the Great War had tainted her general view of humans. A blood test was harmless. He was not asking for much.

"I would like to make one more request, Princess," Mr. Weldenburg suddenly said.

"What is it?" Sally asked.

The geneticist folded his hands on the table and looked straight ahead at the blue hedgehog in front of him, "I was hoping that Sonic here would be willing to volunteer a sample."

The hedgehog looked at the geneticist with a confused expression, before breaking eye contact and glancing at Sally. The squirrel frowned, furrowing her brow slightly, "Why?"

Weldenburg shrugged, "As far as I can tell, all of the people in this village look different but are relatively normal, except for the extra appendage on your Freedom Fighter in Training, Tails. Sonic is the only one that displays a unique, and quite frankly abnormal, skill. Personally, I am fascinated by this outlier and wish to study the cause." He grinned, looking at Sonic.

"Think about it: aren't you curious as to _why_ you can do what you can? Just a couple of vials of blood and I might be able to give you an answer to that question. There could be a genetic miracle in your DNA waiting to be unlocked. Think of what we could do with that information? We may even be able to help others…"

Sonic tilted his head to the side. What the heck was this guy talking about? "How could _my_ DNA help others?"

Weldenburg shrugged, "I don't know, perhaps something within you could be of use. For example, some old footage of you battling against the Doctor revealed your body's ability to sustain heavy impacts with minimal damage. Something in your DNA made you stronger than the next person. The question is what? Oh, don't worry: I'm not going to copy your DNA or anything. Like Chuck said, I can't take anything with me. Merely there might be something in your genes that I could use to better understand the genetic system as w hole. From there, I can use my knowledge to help others. So, what do you say?"

He looked at Sonic expectantly, who was taken aback by everything the man was saying. The hedgehog personally felt a little weird, hearing that this man had already studied him. This wasn't like meeting some guy on South Island who had heard a story about 'The Blue Blur'. But still…perhaps he had mistaken Weldenburg for some kind of creep when in fact he was just some weird gene enthusiast. He laughed a little uneasily.

"I'm not really a fan of needles," he replied, looking sideways. Mr. Weldenburg frowned and crossed his arms.

"Sonic the Hedgehog, who has gone up against the Doctor's most vicious robots, afraid of a needle?"

Chris frowned as Sonic narrowed his eyes at the human. Already the geneticist knew how to work an angle, by challenging the hedgehog and thus testing his pride. Not wanting to appear weak, of course Sonic would say yes. The hedgehog put on a grin and said, "Just testing your resolve. Fine, I'll do it, if it could help others."

The human smiled, having gotten what he wanted, and held out his hand for the hedgehog to shake. At the end of the table Chris heaved a heavy sigh. He felt Helen's hand on his as she leaned forward and whispered something into his ear.

"That guy's a creep."

"Yeah, I know," He said softly back to her. "But what's he going to do? Like Grandpa said, he's just overly curious."

"More like obsessed. It's not natural."

"He's got what he wants. Better to just let it go, and let things settle into some kind of normalcy."

Helen leaned back and crossed her arms, pouting. Chris did the same.

And dinner went on without any further disturbances.


	5. It's Hard Work

Chapter 5: It's Hard Work

"Chris! Helen! Chuck!"

The pink hedgehog, coconut rabbit, and blue chao bounded across the clearing, covering the distance between themselves and the humans in an instant. They went straight for the legs, wrapping themselves around the large radius of Chris's lower torso. Then just as quickly as they came they moved on, nearly jumping up on Helen's wheelchair to give her an embrace.

"We missed you!" cried the rabbit. Tears were welling up in her eyes, and her faithful chao tried unsuccessful to wipe them away.

"Oh, Cream! Cheese! Amy!" Helen said, hugging the small rabbit tightly, "We missed you too! You've grown a lot!"

Chris grinned as Cream demonstrated how many inches she had grown over the past two years. Amy went to shake Chuck's hand, but quickly lost her interest in the humans. For her eyes had locked on to another prize.

"Oh Soooooniiiiic!" She cried out. She raced past the humans and threw her arms around the hedgehog, who was standing with Cream's mother and Sally a few meters back. The blue hedgehog let out a cry of mercy, but was not spared Amy's hugging.

Sally put her hand to her mouth and giggled in amusement, then turned to Vanilla Rabbit, "Thank you so much for bringing them here," She said, smiling, "I'm sure it means a lot to them, and to the Thorndyke's."

"It's my pleasure, Miss Sally," Vanilla replied, watching her daughter with a mother's admiration. Cream, now eight, danced around in front of Helen, Chris, and Chuck, showing off her lavender sundress, "Cream was so upset after we left. They took such good care of her and she missed them so much."

Though Vanilla, Cream, and Amy had for a time lived in Knothole Village, they all eventually moved to South Island. Amy, the one with the most modern style out of the Mobians, longed for a more urban setting, so much so that she left despite her obsession with Sonic. That didn't stop numerous letters from dropping at Sonic's door, however. Vanilla also felt that it was best to move there, for South Island was away from the forest and Robotropolis. She hadn't wanted her child to grow up with the threat of war hanging over her. She wanted Cream to be able to grow up untainted, and to make friends. The lack of many children in Knothole was probably what finalized her decision.

But now the news of the humans' return had prompted them back for a visit. Since it was summer Cream had no school. Amy had taken a break from her job. They would remain for the rest of the season, much to the delight of some and to the dismay of Sonic, who had since been tackled to the ground by Amy Rose.

Sally finally decided to play referee, "Alright, guys! Hey, Amy, and Cream, why don't you go with Helen and accompany the others for a while? Sonic and Chris have work to do."

Amy frowned at Sally while Cream ran excitedly past. As Helen wheeled up she noticed a twinge of jealousy in Amy's eyes before she walked after Cream. Sonic got up and dusted himself off, glancing up at Sally. His expression thanked her, and hers said, 'You're Welcome'. Their glance was prolonged, before the hint of a smile grabbed at the corners of their mouths, and they both walked towards The Thorndyke's. Helen put her hand to her mouth to hide her own upturned lips, and wheeled off after Amy, Cream, and Cheese.

"Chuck, I believe Rotor and Tails would love to have you over at the Freedom Fighter HQ," Sally said, "They are eager to discuss your research with you."

Chuck grinned and gave the Princess a mock salute, "On my way, Princess." He promptly headed off in the direction of the enormous hill that had served as their entrance point. Chris looked after his grandfather, and then back to the Princess. The scientist in him wanted to follow, since it was his project after all…

"Chris, you're a strong, bright young man, it seems," Sally said, "We could use that. Today, you're with Sonic, doing all the routine Once-a-week To Do items, got it?"

Sonic rolled his eyes and groaned, "_That_ To Do list. Got it…"

Sally smirked, and pushed the hedgehog playfully, "Get it done, Sonic Hedgehog." She threatened, then waved and walked off towards Bunnie's hut.

Sonic and Chris were left standing in the middle of the village. Sonic again rolled his eyes and pointed in Sally's direction, "She's gone to gossip. I've never understood those two. Anyways, come on! We've got work to do. The Boss'll have my head if it doesn't get done."

Chris followed the grinning hedgehog, who made off in a direction of no importance to the human. He had been here a couple of days now, but still barely knew where anything was. All the huts looked similar to him, and his sense of direction was off in this new world. Still, that mattered little now. He was thrilled that today he was assigned to help Sonic. Since they'd been here he hadn't been able to spend much time with the hedgehog. Sonic had a lot of errands to run, it seemed. Sally used his speed and impatience to her advantage. And Chris had been helping the other scientists set up their mini labs in different parts of the village. Jen, for example, had three different outposts: One in her hut, one in the HQ, and one in the lookout tower mounted in one of the trees. It had been a lot of work, and Chris was looking forward to relaxing and hanging out with the friend he had come to see.

Still, it was awkward, whenever Chris was around the hedgehog. He had been forced to become a rather calm individual during his high school and college years. Working with other scientists required a strong personality, capable of taking the brutal criticism they offered. In addition he and Helen had to deal with the jabs of their fellow classmates, who thought they were crazy. Chris was different. And so was Sonic, in a way that confused Chris. On Earth Sonic had been a hyperactive speedball, much like he was now. Except he was quieter on Earth. He rarely spoke, and had a strange aloofness about him. Chris had once or twice gotten a little mad at the hedgehog, because he had failed to take responsibility for things, on more than one occasion. He treated Earth as a vacation spot, and yet there was always something a little stoic about him.

Here, in Knothole, Sonic was much livelier. He made off-the-wall comments and bounded to life at the smallest of requests, with the feigned air of being too bothered to do the task. His high-and-mighty talk showed his over-confidence, and suggested immaturity. And yet despite this Chris felt that the hedgehog was more responsible. He gave them the tour, he ran errands dutifully for the Princess, and cared for others. Disregarding his arrogant attitude the hedgehog seemed more grown-up here. Most importantly, he seemed more alive. And that bothered Chris. He thought back to one of his last conversations with the hedgehog, six years ago…

_Sonic, if I asked you to stay, would you?_

_ I'll do whatever you tell me to do…_

_ Won't you be sad, not returning home?_

_ …As long as I can run I'll be fine wherever I go._

Did Sonic lie?

"Mobius to Chris!"

Chris blinked and looked at Sonic, who was holding a large metal bucket up for him to take.

"Oh," Chris said and grabbed the bucket from the blue hedgehog. "Sorry, just daydreaming."

"Head in Geer, man, we're wasting daylight!" Sonic replied impatiently. They were at the side of one of the huts. How they got there, Chris didn't know. Sonic had opened it, revealing a shed full of all kinds of tools. He was digging through them now, and pulled out a couple of wrenches, saws, hammers, nails, and paint brushes. As he shut the doors Chris raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of work are we doing again?" Chris asked.

"Maintenance," Sonic groaned.

So much for a relaxing day…

* * *

><p>His hand was enveloped in a glowing red light, which pulsated slowly in the center of its container. With each pulse some detailed features of his hand were brought out for an instant, and then the creases disappeared underneath the peak of light's intensity. He fiddled with it for a moment, and then placed it upon the table next to him.<p>

"All of our technology here at HQ has been modified so that it doesn't go haywire whenever a Chaos Emerald is near," Rotor explained to Chuck. Tails was sitting on the edge of the workbench, watching over the machinery anyways, just in case, "Still, if the emerald touches any of our systems directly it almost always fries it."

"That was the problem we had when we built the machine that sent you guys home," Chuck said, looking to Tails. The kitsune nodded.

"We fixed it by combining a variety of metal alloys with a flexible, non-conductive substance like rubber for the main power converter. Then we encased that in a box made of layers of the stuff, to prevent the energy from spreading to any other region of the machine. I took the idea from Dr. Robotnik's Energy Amplifier he created three years ago. Its destruction is what caused the emeralds to go into Chaos Control and send us to Earth. After I got back, I outfitted all our machines with a cover made of the same material."

"Very impressive," Chuck said, passing his hand over the computer's surface. The metal was a dark color, and in the right light it shimmered lightly, evidence of the numerous alloys within. "We didn't have a problem quite so severe with our new machine. Because it wasn't as erratic as Chaos Energy we just had to figure out how not to overload the system with the sheer amount of power we needed. It didn't fry electronics like this."

"Well, I've noticed that Chaos Energy doesn't conduct itself as well through Earthen materials. Like, plants, animals, and us. Instead I believe we absorb the energy," Rotor hypothesized.

"Very interesting theory, Mr. Walrus."

The three turned around to see Mr. Weldenburg standing in the doorway. He was smiling. "Sorry to intrude, I heard that the Freedom Fighters had a Chaos Emerald, and I just _had_ to see it."

"Actually," Rotor said, getting up to shake the geneticist's hand, "We have four in our storage containers in the back. In our various battles with Robotnik we've managed to obtain them. He still has two emeralds. The last emerald, we have no idea where it is."

"Even better," Weldenburg replied, "I've been listening in a bit. So they fry machines and are absorbed by planet-based materials."

"We think," Rotor replied. "I mean, we've seen many different phenomenon where something was able to absorb Chaos Energy. It's always been Mobius-grown. No machine has ever been able to harness it without loads of work put into converting the power. Even Mecha Sonic and Robo Knux have shorted out when they tried to use them."

"Who are Mecha Sonic and Robo Knux?" Chuck asked curiously.

Rotor frowned, waving it off, "Long story, for another day. Anyways, so sometimes this absorption occurs without us being able to see it. Others it's very visible, like when Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds to transform."

"Are there others that can use the Chaos Emeralds?" Weldenburg asked.

"I'm sure there are, but I only know of Sonic and Knuckles that can use them willingly. Sonic's ability has always puzzled me. But Knuckles is the Guardian. It's in his blood."

"It's in his blood…" Mr. Weldenburg leaned backwards up against the table and put his hand to his chin. He 'hmm'ed for a moment, and then looked at the Walrus.

"Rotor, I have a theory for you. It branches off of your own. Now, hear me out. Some people on my world believe that 'psychics' are plausible because they look at conscious thought as an A.M. /F.M. radio. Every person has their own frequency. This makes it so there isn't any interference between us. But some people, it is claimed, have the ability to turn the dial, so to speak. Meaning they can tune in to other people's frequencies. They are more receptive to it. The concept is that some people, through evolution and their DNA, have had their neurons programmed differently.

"Now, say Chaos Energy works the same way. It is like a collective unconscious, a stream that envelops the world, but through the ground, the trees, the plants, etc. And because your species has lived here and evolved for centuries, you are also receptive to it. You are programmed into it. However, some people are more tuned into the energy than others. Some people, like Sonic and Knuckles, are programmed differently. Because Knuckles got this ability from his ancestors, it suggests that this can be a genetic, hereditary phenomenon. And because the hedgehog is also conveniently the only one in your village to display such an abnormal ability, it may also suggest that being 'in tune' to Chaos Energy may result in other genetic augmentations."

"That's….plausible, but a very high claim, considering how much you're assuming here. How could we even prove that?" Rotor asked. "Especially since we only have two cases."

"Three cases," Chuck interrupted.

"Yeah, Shadow was the same as Sonic." Tails added, "But Shadow is…"

"…Dead," Weldenburg finished. "Yes, we attempted to find the black hedgehog in order to learn more about chaos energy, but his body was never recovered. It doesn't matter though. Sonic has already volunteered a sample of his blood to me. If he was endowed his abilities through Chaos Energy, it would be unfortunate for _my_ cause, since I am hoping to unlock a genetic mystery to augment the health of our race. However, wouldn't it be _interesting_ to see?"

"Yes, very interesting…" Rotor said, smiling. "I'd like to work with you on this project, if you don't mind, Mr. Weldenburg. I've not a lot of experience with genetics, but I've collected a lot of data on the Chaos Emeralds."

"Which is precisely a point of knowledge where I lack," Weldenburg replied. Together, we'll make a superb team, Rotor. I'm sure of it."

Chuck folded his arms, amused at the Mobian and Human as they shook hands. He looked back to Tails. "Seems like our research will continue just between the two of us now, eh Tails?"

Tails shrugged, "I'm fine with that. Since we're both familiar with the designs, we can go more in depth."

The grey-haired human balled his hand into a fist and punched it into his other palm, "Exactly the answer I was hoping for,"

* * *

><p>"Okay, now turn it to the left."<p>

"To the Left?"

"Yeah!"

Chris pushed all his weight up against the giant brass hand crank, nudging it counter-clockwise. The pads keeping pressure on the giant water wheel suddenly loosened, and the whole contraption began to sway dangerously, threatening to throw the hedgehog standing on top of it.

"The other left! The other left!" He shouted, failing both arms out to keep his balance. Chris immediately switched positions and rammed his side into the crank, tightening the hold instantly. Sonic gained back his balance and jumped down from the wheel, landing next to a very sore Chris.

"…Sorry, hehe." Sonic said sheepishly, scratching behind his ear, "You okay?"

"Just jammed my shoulder, that's all," Chris said, "You ought to oil that crank. It's nearly impossible to move."

"And that's next on our To Do list," Sonic said proudly, digging through the bucket and pulling out some gear oil. Chris rubbed his shoulder and frowned at the hedgehog.

"Shouldn't we have done that before?" He asked.

Sonic blinked, thought about it, and then laughed uneasily, "Might have been nice…"

Chris joined in on the chuckle, "I had no idea you were so scatter-brained."

"Hey, I'm not scatter-brained! Sal wrote the list, I was just following it."

"Do you always follow Sally without question?"

"Always…well, maybe not always. I never listen whenever she tells me _not_ to do something. That drives her crazy."

"I think that would drive anybody crazy." Chris worked his shoulder a bit more before walking up to another crank. "Okay, so should we put this baby to work?"

"Let her rip," Sonic said, jumping up to the roof of the waterwheel's engine room. Knothole's water wheel was the main source of electricity for the town, besides the generators that powered the HQ computers. Most huts were able to have two light bulbs thanks to its constant motion. It was held upright by the pressure crank, which Chris had just turned, and then another crank could lift the wheel out of the water when maintenance was being done. This crank Chris turned, and the wooden panel holding the wheel shifted down. The wheel dipped beneath the bank and into the stream running alongside Knothole village. The current began pushing the wheel one way, and Sonic walked along the top to help bring the first couple of troughs to the other side. Then he jumped off, and the wheel was self-propelled. The hedgehog tilted his ears down, and heard the cranking of the gears inside the powerhouse.

"Success!" Sonic yelled, jumping up, "We are out of control! You can't stop us!"

Chris grinned and wiped the sweat from his brow. The sun was just beginning to dip behind the trees now, darkening the village more than it already was. During the mid hours of the day the village was still shady. The canopy shielded the village from any spy cams Robotnik could send out to find them. Still, the foliage had a way of making the air more humid. Within the first few minutes of work on the 'To Do' List, which included cutting and staining the replacement boards for the Lookout post as well as fixing the wheel house, Chris had been drenched in sweat. It was good to be done, now. He wanted a shower…and food.

"How often does this thing break down?" Chris asked as Sonic landed beside him. He noticed that the hedgehog's quills were glistening with sweat as well.

"Oh, _all_ the time," Sonic replied, dropping his tools into the bucket. They landed with a loud, tin-like crash. Chris cringed at the noise, and then dumped his in as well, "But it's the best thing we have. It also doesn't pollute, either, which is a plus."

Chris nodded, wrinkling up his nose, "I see, wouldn't want to add to Dr. Robotnik's environmental devastation."

Sonic raised his eyebrows as he picked up the bucket, "Ohhhh yeah."

"Sonic," Chris said, unbuttoning his shirt. He couldn't take the heat any longer, and vaguely wondered if any of the Mobians ever felt like shaving all their fur off, "How bad is Robotnik. He was pretty maniacal, on Earth, but he wasn't…well, he was hard to take seriously, if you know what I mean."

"Robotnik was just playing around on Earth," Sonic replied, starting off towards the tool shed, "He is really bad."

"But, like…how bad?"

Sonic stopped and turned to face Chris. His face was serious, and in his eyes was something Chris had never seen before, not in his gentle-natured friend. Hate.

"All those people, down in that city…" Sonic began, and cut himself off. He was silent for a moment, his eyes turned down to the ground, as if searching for the right thing to say. Then he seemed to give up, shook his head, sighed and kept on moving. "Really bad, Chris."

Chris ran to catch up with the hedgehog, "He destroyed the city that you guys lived in. And turned all those people into robots. Has he done…other things?"

They had reached the shed. Sonic opened the door and put the bucket down. He closed it and looked up at Chris, grinning, "I'm totally beat, and real dirty. Let's hit the showers."

"Um, okay," Chris said, and decided that was Sonic's way of saying 'Drop it'. He followed the hedgehog back towards the general direction of the water wheel, only slightly south of it. On the way he thought. What had Robotnik done that Sonic wouldn't tell him about? Sonic would talk about the Robians. Sonic would talk about the destruction of Mobotropolis. His home had been taken away. Chris sighed inwardly. At they had each other. He remembered his mother once telling that friends and family were the most important things…

Chris looked around. Family. Sonic kept on walking, not noticing that the human stood still in the path, his eyes overcome with sadness. He had met pretty much everyone in Knothole village by now. And nobody, not one person was a family member of the Freedom Fighters. He had heard that most people in Mobotropolis either were roboticized or had died. Not many escaped.

So where they slaves or were they dead?

"Hey, Chris! What's wrong?"

"Oh, um, nothing!" Chris responded, and then ran to catch up with the hedgehog. "Just daydreaming again."

Sonic raised an eyebrow, "Again? Might wanna get your head checked."

"Hah Hah," Chris said sarcastically, "I'm allowed to daydream with the rest of them."

"On your own time," Sonic said slyly, "Here, showers."

The 'shower' consisted of the river, a few buckets, and a clipped shower bag next to a couple of wooden stalls. Sonic took a bucket down to the river and filled it. He came back, less quickly than before, dragging the huge bucket full of water, and heaved it up the steps to the water carrier. Then he filled the container and hopped down.

"We have actual showers in the back of the Mess Hall, but this was quicker," Sonic said. He grabbed a bar of soap from out of his small pack – where the heck had he gotten a small pack? – and wet it a little. Then he took off his gloves and shoes and lathered up. Chris stood there until the hedgehog looked at him and tilted his head.

"What?"

"Uh…well, nothing, I was just waiting for you to finish and , uh…well, leave." Chris admitted.

"…There are two showers."

"Yeah, I prefer a little more privacy."

Sonic grinned, "You'll probably want to use the Mess Hall showers then."

"Yeah, I'll do that." Chris turned and walked away, suddenly wishing that he was covered in fur. To add to his strange sense of humiliation was the sound of the hedgehog's laughter as he walked up the trail.

His exhaustion truly got to him when he arrived at his hut for his extra set of clothes. He was sunburned, despite the canopy, and the extra rays had sucked the energy right out of him. He debated not washing up at all, his bed looked so inviting, but the guys would probably throw him out if they came back to a hut filled with his stench. So he grabbed his clothes and shuffled towards the Mess Hall. Passing each hut, he looked at the lights on the inside and the people sitting down to dinner, or preparing to travel to the Hall. It gave him a warm feeling, looking at the soft yellow glow, and knowing that he had helped bring those lights to them.

Bunnie Rabbot was exiting her hut just as he passed. He debated asking her to walk with him, but decided not to on account of his filth. It didn't matter either way. Bunnie saw him and walked over.

"Howdy Sugah! Oh, Peee-Yew! Ya'll been out workin' in the sun all day, haven't ya?" She said, waving her hand in front of her nose.

Chris laughed uneasily, "Yeah, I have been, sorry. I'm heading to the showers right now, actually."

"Now that's a good decision. Ah was afraid you were goin' to eat," the rabbot joked.

"Yeah, I had no idea fixing the water wheel would be so difficult. How do you guys keep this place up?"

Bunnie shrugged, "It's hard work, bein' a Mobian, Sugah. What can Ah say? But it's rewardin' . We're a family, ya know. We give each other what we don't already have."

Chris smiled at Bunnie, touched by her warm words. She always seemed to have something nice to say about the situation they were in. And they did seem like a family…

"Hey, Bunnie?"

"Yeah, Sugah?"

"…I was wondering, about Mobotropolis…" Chris didn't know if he should ask the rabbot.

"Go on, Sugah."

"Well, about…those who survived. Did you guys, any of you, have any….family?"

Bunnie's smile dimmed, but did not disappear. "We all had parents, once, but they all disappeared durin' the coup. Sally-girl's teachers, Rosie and Julayla, took care of all of us after we was orphans."

Chris looked down. "Oh, so…they all died?"

"Oh, Ah dunno if they all died. Ah know Sally's mother died, but her father is trapped. Tails's parents are Robians, and Sugah-Hog's uncle Chuck as well. Other than that, Ah don't know."

"You don't know about your own parents?"

"Nah, Ah was taken from a place far away. Ah don' even remember what mah Ma and Pa look like." She put her hand on Chris when she saw his face fall, "Oh, but it's okay, Sugah! That happened years ago. We all were able to move on, no need worryin' 'bout us."

Chris shrugged, "It's hard not to, knowing you all went through this horrible event. I don't know how you do it."

Bunnie smiled, "Like Ah said, Sugah: It's hard work bein' heah."

Chris sighed, and brought his arms around each other. In the distance the sun was winking out, and the night had begun to take over the village. "Yeah, very hard work…"


	6. The Long, Not so Forgotten Road

{{Author: Hi Guys! Oh my, I'm so sorry for such a long wait! I added new chapters like every couple of days and then I disappeared for a month. I know. Bad. I was busy moving in to college and packing and being STRESSED. But now I am settled in, for the most part, and I HAVE NOT forgotten about this story! In fact, I've been thinking about it a lot.

So please Enjoy! I apologize, this chapter is not at...cohesive as the others in my opinion. Because rather than sitting down and writing it all out I spaced out the writing. I don't do well when I do that. I swear more is on the way! Just perhaps not as quickly as the first 6 chapters were. Thanks for being patient!}}

Chapter 6: The Long, Not So Forgotten Road

"I can't believe I'm doing this…" Sonic groaned, clenching his teeth together as the needle pierced his flesh at the bend in his arm. A steady stream of red began to flow through the transparent tube and into a large vial. Weldenburg stood there next to the hedgehog, eyeing the substance greedily, as an oil man might look down into his well of black gold. When the vial was full, he removed it from the tube and placed it into a cold container. Then he pulled the needle from the hedgehog's skin and placed a cotton ball on it.

"Hold that," He said in a distracted voice, and the hedgehog held the fluff against his arm as the geneticist turned around and began adjusting the controls on the container. Before Weldenburg closed it Sonic counted six other glass tubes full of blood samples, three of which belonged to him. One for every week the humans had been here.

Why this man needed three whole vials of his blood Sonic didn't know. Science always took forever and required so many tests, but then why only take one vial of blood from the two 'normal' volunteers?

"Once again, thank you very much," the human said, turning around and shaking the hedgehog's hand. Sonic nodded and got up from the chair he had been sitting in, then walked to the exit of Rotor's lab. This was where Weldenburg had set up shop, since the two were working on this project together.

"Also, Sonic?" Weldenburg asked from over his shoulder. He was writing something in his notebook, and had his back turned, "Are you and your Freedom Fighter friends still going on that raid mission?"

"Yeah," Sonic replied, massaging his pinpricked arm, "Sal said for you to come to the briefing tomorrow night."

"Excellent. Thank you, that will be all," Weldenburg said, waving the hedgehog away. Sonic blinked at the man for a moment, then wrinkled up his nose and left.

That _Overlander_ was getting on his nerves, the hedgehog thought idly as he walked through the heart of Knothole Village. He acted as though he were some royal guest, and that his work was more important than anything else going on here. Sonic had cooperated with the blood tests, so that Sally wouldn't have to argue with the man. But then he started asking Sally for more favors. Power cables, pieces of valuable metal, and even permission to study the Chaos Emeralds. Rotor had blurted out during dinner one evening that they were exploring the possibility of Chaos Mutations in the bloodstream, resulting in the abilities Sonic and some other Mobians had acquired from birth. Now, of all things, the geneticist wanted in on a mission in order to see the team 'in action'. Sonic had a feeling he'd be watching only a particular part of the team, and that particular part would be him. Creepy.

Sonic hated being the object of someone's strange curiosity, and he hated even more the idea of his speed being labeled a genetic mutation. Thoughts raced through his head of all the people that would want to study him, take blood samples, maybe even lock him in a cage…

Sonic shook his head, keeping his imagination from running wild with thoughts of chains and surgical tables and icky white hospital rooms. Sometimes he just couldn't stop his mind from racing at seven-hundred miles per hour. He smiled. Well, at least everyone would be gone today. Bunnie and Antoine were taking their guests to South Island, a highly populated urban area, at the request of Mary and Brent. Chris, Chuck, and Helen were all going, Jen was with Tails in the forest, collecting samples of the plant life, and Weldenburg would be cooped up all day in his makeshift, mad-scientist lab. Sonic could get a breather.

"Sonic!" There came a shout from the other end of the village. Sonic squinted to see the ground squirrel walking towards him, looking angry about something. Then he remembered: it had been his turn to help out in the Mess Hall the night before. Uh Oh. He revved up his legs and sped off into the forest, leaving the squirrel cursing in the dust. She could yell at him later. As he cleared the dense forest and came to a large plain he poured on the speed, rocketing past the sound barrier. He leaned forward and let his arms hang, the force of the wind keeping him from toppling head over heels. The objects around him melted away into thick blurs of color, and the summer heat vanished with the wind current. Sonic breathed in freedom and continued on, quickly forgetting about Knothole and its strange guests…

South Island had got to be up there with one of the most beautiful cityscapes Chris had ever seen. It was, indeed, an island, and an island within an island at that. The earth rose out of the ocean in a cliff-like form, and then flattened out into a mountainous landscape surrounding a giant lake. In the center of this lake was another island, much smaller, a strange mountain constructed out of old, and decrepit machine parts. The place, from a distance, looked over run with trees, vines, and plant life. Unlike Robotropolis, it had a strange beauty to it.

At a harbor on the West side of the lake there stood a thriving citytown (for it was not metropolitan enough o really be called a city, but too populous to be considered a town). From the Ferry station that boated tourists from the mainland, a cobblestone road lead into the main shop area next to the docks. It was here that the humans stood with Bunnie and Antoine, staring in awe at the sheer amount of species surrounding them.

"Look at all the Mobians!" Helen exclaimed, watching the civilians as they strolled down the pathways. "There are so many!"

"And of an utmost amount of different species and races…" Brent said, pulling out his notebook. In the three weeks they had been here the anthropologist's arm had pretty much healed, and he could once again take notes at an amazing speed. "Curiouser and Curiouser. This establishment seems to function exactly the same as a human town. I find it increasingly amazing that such different races as Humans and Mobians have developed so similarly. "

"Well, maybe it has somethin' tuh do with the fact that Overlanders and Mobians exist togethuh, Sugah," Bunnie said, exasperated.

"You know, for amazing theenkers such as yourselves, I would be thinking you would be making less obvious…observations," The coyote, Antoine said. Chris had trouble understanding him sometimes, because of his accent, and because of his rather arrogant, pessimistic attitude, except when he was talking to Bunnie. Helen had pointed that one out. Chris sighed, chuckling inwardly. She was a relationship guru, instantly knowing who liked who and whatnot. Good thing to, because Chris was absolutely clueless.

"Well, I didn't come here to just sit and watch from the edge of the town. Let's go window-shopping!" Helen said, grinning. "Unless they can exchange Earth currency."

Chuck began to beam, "I wonder if they could? I could buy some upgraded parts for my project back home…"

"Grandpa, we're not allowed to bring anything back!" Chris said, bringing his palm to his forehead. Already everyone had begun to split up.

"Ahright, fellas! Antoine, you go with the science bunch and Ah'll go give these folks a shop tour. Ya'll meet back at the Cottage Bar at the end of the day!" Bunnie said, and grabbed Helen's wheelchair, "Ohhhhh, Ah've got a store in mind that sells beaauuutiful hair clips! They would look so good on you!"

Before Chris knew what was going on, Bunnie was halfway down the street with Helen, her one floppy ear bouncing above the heads of all the other Mobians. Chris grinned and followed his grandfather, who was staring into the window of a mechanics shop, beaming. He pushed opened the door and the two of them went in. Chuck immediately disappeared down towards the engines, where he was without a doubt searching for an updated engine to one of the planes he was building. Ever since Tails had left Earth his Grandfather had gotten in to planes, trying to build them faster and more durable than any other thing on the Earth. His work had gotten him multiple grants from the Nation's Air Force.

Chris looked around and found a lot of random metal parts he had never seen before. Some kind of strip on the wall in front of him looked like it was solar powered, perhaps a weird skateboard or something. What seemed weird was that there was a lot of advanced technology in this world, but the majority of the household items were primitive compared to the things on his world. T.V. did not exist here, as far as he could tell, though face-to-face communication through satellite video was state-of-the-art. Computers were at least twice as powerful here, but the people in Knothole Village had no electric stoves, or microwaves. In fact, Chris didn't even see one here. All he saw was an in-wall oven in the back behind the cashier's desk, with an iron pot of coffee hung inside. Quite strange.

Staring at the oven, it took Chris a while to notice the cashier. He was a blue Iguana, dressed in a maroon, button-down work shirt with a nametag that said "Fezt". Down his back were droopy spines that doubled for hair, and his eyes were a sinister yellow color. Or maybe they looked sinister because he was glaring at Chris. Chris blinked, and avoided eye contact, looking down into the store racks. But he still felt eyes on his back, as if the cashier were burning a hole in the back of his head. Chris walked towards the back of the store, passing a yellow Canary on the way. She glanced at him, angrily it seemed, and then kept walking. Chris, sensing a pattern, looked around. There were maybe ten people in this shop, discluding the shop keeper, himself, and his grandfather. All of them had their heads down, and once in a while wary, cold eyes crept his way.

"Grandpa," Chris said, walking up to Chuck and tapping his shoulder, "Let's get out of here."

Chuck blinked, looking up. "What? Why?"

Everyone seemed to be staring at them now. Chris felt tense, his shoulders bunching up, "Please, grandpa."

Chuck glanced about, sensing his grandson's nervousness. He quickly spotted all of the Mobian eyes on them, and frowned.

"Alright, let's go…"

Helen raised her arms and caught the scarf that Bunnie had thrown at her, her back turned, as she rummaged through the hangers in the store. The rabbot was going absolutely berserk, shoving half the items in the store at Helen to entertain her many fashion ideas.

"Ooo! Wouldn't this look faaabulous? Heah, hold it real quick," She suddenly said, another scarf in her arms. She wrapped one around Helen's neck, and the other over her head like a headband. One was a burnt orange, the other a deep sea blue.

"Ah'm so jealous!" Bunnie said, stepping back and looking at Helen, "Everythang looks so beautiful on you! Oh, you've _got_ to let me do your hair sometime…"

Helen chuckled and pulled the scarves from her head and neck, handing them back to the rabbot. She also took out the various clips and pins Bunnie had snapped onto her head while they were in there, "Alright, sounds great!"

Bunnie took the handful of hair stuffs and placed them back from whence they came, then pressed her hand to her cheek, blushing. "Oh, Ah'm sorry, sugah. It's just, you are so beautiful and have such precious gold hair, Ah just _can't_ stop imaginin' you all done up. Nobody in Knothole has hair as pretty as you."

Helen beamed and picked out a lock from her pony tail, eyeing the individual strands of her warm blonde hair. She had always pulled it back, because she felt it got in the way during class. Yet, she never had the heart to cut it short. "Aww, thank you, Bunnie. That's so sweet of you, but I don't think _I_ have the prettiest blonde hair in Knothole. You definitely take the cake."

Bunnie grinned, and twisted her locks in her fingers. "Aww, shucks, sugah. Ya'll gonna make me cry. Ah work and work to keep this hair up. Fightin' a rebellion takes its toll on a girl's follicles. Still, Ah can't play with mah own hair and Sally only lets me mess around with her's once in a while." She paused, seeing another clip. She began to reach for it, then with obvious hesitation, withdrew her hand. Helen breathed a sigh of relief. The rabbot turned, hands on her hips, smiling at the human girl.

"It's not just that, though," She said, "Ah like you, Helen. Ya'll have a good heart and _Ah_ noticed that _you_ notice thangs. Gossip thangs. Lemme tell you, girl, that's mah speciality!"

Helen clapped her hands together and rubbed them back and forth, as if rubbing imaginary 'dirt' between her fingers, "I'm the queen back at the university, but I'm tasteful about it. I make it a point to _know_, not to tell. So speaking of which, is there anything going on between S-" She was cut off by a female tiger passing in front of them. The Mobian's big paws kicked the footrest on her wheel chair, and the girl was spun halfway around.

"Sorry, excuse me," Helen said, apologetically. The isles were small and her chair took up a lot of space.

The tiger looked at her gruffly, then flared her nostrils, "Yes, excuse you. You nearly tripped me with that contraption of yours."

"I said I was sorry," Helen said defensively, "I'll try to find a corner so I don't take up so much space."

"Hmph. Maybe instead of taking up an entire isle, you should wheel yourself to a place made for your kind."

Helen, taken aback, stared at the tiger wide-eyed. Bunnie, at this point, stepped in front of the tiger and pointed a steel finger at her, "Looky here, missy, she can't help that she's handicapped. People with disabilities have every right to be in a store same as you." The rabbot glared at the tiger, who gave her a smug smirk.

"Of course they do," she replied, "But humans are a different story."

Bunnie frowned, and couldn't come up with a reply before the tiger turned and walked out of the store haughtily. Then she turned back to Helen, a sad look on her face.

"Ah'm sorry, Sugah. Don't listen to her," Bunnie said, shrugging. "Some people are just prejudiced."

Helen felt heat rising to the surface of her face and igniting the skin of her cheeks. She looked around her and realized that their altercation had grabbed the attention of everyone else in the small shop. All Mobians, all looking at her weird. Some of them held her gaze more malevolently than others. Still the message she received from their eyes was the same. Outsider.

"Can we leave?" She asked, her voice faltering. Her vision blurred with the tears she fought to hold back. Stupid, really.

Bunnie immediately grabbed her wheelchair and headed for the door. "Sure thang, Helen. Sure."

"We really should be walkeeng back now, not forward," Antoine said desperately, trailing the two 'experts' in front of him. So strange, these people were, asking questions which had answers that were right in front of them. What types of music did Mobians listen to? All types. What was city life normally like? Like this. How did people cope with the war? All types of ways, all of which they were viewing right now. Antoine sighed and rubbed his fingers to his temples. These humans were too busy searching for the differences between their culture and his own. So busy, in fact, that they barely recognized the similarities. Or perhaps these similarities weren't as important to them.

"Excuse me, Antoine," Brent asked, leaning up against a cobblestone bridge. The water beneath them moved calmly towards the lake, collecting the last of the past winter's melted snow, "But I've noticed that despite technological advancements far superior to our own, there is a certain primeval nature to the Mobian culture. May I ask why Mobians, with the ability to improve their standard of living, choose to live in huts and small cottages rather than larger houses? Have markets and shops instead of corporations and global sales?"

"Apart from ze fact that we are in a global war and do not have many resources, let me just say that we prefer not to follow in ze footsteps of our human predecessors," Antoine answered, already annoyed. Brent looked at him curiously, as did Mary.

"I can understand Knothole's predicament, with the lack of supplies and such, but still: this place, South Island, has the potential to move up into a thriving metropolis. And even back before the war, when Mobotropolis existed, I understand that technology was not a priority until The Great War. Also, you have no real predominant Gods or religions that would hinder this sort of progress. Is it simply contempt for the human way of life as a result of the Great War?"

"Perhaps you could be saying that," Antoine said, "Ze people of Mobotropolis were _happy_ as they were. We had no need for theengs such as skyscrapers and _corporations_."

"But it provides freedom and capitalism," Brent argued, tapping his pen against his clipboard. "At least for humans it does."

Antoine walked up to the bridge's ledge, and placed his hands upon the rough stone. His eyes shown out over the water for a moment, and he sighed as if trying to rid his himself of this annoyance.

"Look at your human way of life," He said calmly. "You create situations zat aid you but hurt others. You build grand cities with cement and pretty sculptures, but you plant no trees other than for decoration. You have mass markets that make people money, but on ze other hand you have people zat are immensely poor. You become mighty and you take what you want. You say eet is for 'equal opportunity', your 'capitalism', and then you are throweeng your own kind out. Our kind as well."

There was a moment of awkward silence between the three as they stood on the cobblestone bridge, staring at one another. Brent, for a moment, held the coyote's stare, but then looked away. Mary, on the other hand, looked him straight in the eye.

"It sounds like you have a personal problem with humans, because of what occurred in the Great War."

Antoine crossed his arms, and huffed at the woman, "Aye do not have a problem with ze humans of deez world. Rather, aye have a problem with the lifestyle that destroyed my city and harmed ze royal family."

"But not just the _royal_ family," Mary dug.

"No, not _just_ ze royal family," Antoine said, looking down. Mary gave him a sympathetic look, while Brent kept his eyes glued to a restaurant down the street. As an anthropologist, it was his job to study cultures. Many times he had journeyed to different countries on his home world, studying more primitive cultures whose customs were different than those of his own. Still, coming here was different somehow.

"Eet iz just, you are looking at ze things that do not matter," Antoine finally said, breaking the silence. He looked up at Mary, and finally at Brent, who stole his eyes away to have a see, "In a way, you are just like them. Wanting to understand, and yet not wanteeng to be a part of eet. Humans are very scientific, and Aye have heard zat Science is ze King of apathy. Do you not agree?"

Mary bit her lip for a moment. She broke her gaze with the coyote and looked around at the landscape surrounding her, the people that moved through the cobblestone streets. Some looked at her strangely, which she had been trying to ignore all day. Others didn't seem to mind, though there were less of them than those who did. "I…"

"Eet was meant to be rhetorical, a thinkeeng question," Antoine said, "Let us be leaving, we have to be catching up with Bunnie and ze others at ze Cottage Bar soon."

The two humans nodded and followed the coyote as he took off back the way they had come. Though her legs were twice as long as the coyote's, Mary fell behind. Her eyes stared off into space, down through the ground they were pointed at. Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up at Brent's smiling face. It was his cheer-you-up face.

"Quite amazing, isn't it?" he asked, "I never imagined a society of _animals_ to be just as complex and intelligent as our own."

Mary's frown didn't falter. She glanced around at the thriving town around them, then looked back at Brent. Her eyes were fierce and scared.

"Are we making the right choice?"

The cheer-me-up face dropped right off Brent's nose, and they stopped walking, two humans paused in the midst of the Mobian community. They didn't seem to notice the stares they were getting.

"Oye! Are you two goeeng to be standing there all day?" Came Antoine's voice, "How does ze hedgehog say it? Be comeeng,, slo-moes!"

Brent sighed, and turned, leaving Mary behind with the unanswered question lingering in the air.

The Cottage Bar was a quaint little cobblestone building nestled up against the lake. It stood at the edge of town, across the way from the Cottage Inn, and the pair frequently hosted travelers who used this place as an out-of-the way stop (and who needed to wash away their worries). From the outside, it looked like a friendly place. The inside also did, some days. Some days it didn't.

The chatter stopped when Antoine opened the door, indicating that the atmosphere was already tense. He glanced to the side and saw the corner of room. Shrouded in darkness and a heavy ploom of smoke there sat a large bulldog, dressed in a heavy black coat. Others sat around him, species intermixed, but it was he was the ringleader. Antoine gulped.

"Howdy, ya'll," Bunnie said from the barstools in front. "We've been waitin' heah almost hour."

"My apologies," Antoine responded, as Brent and Mary came in. The two were wrapped in a stony silence, Antoine decided, as a result of his comments earlier. He hopped on a barstool next to Bunnie and Helen. She was sipping a glass of water idly, and staring at the countertop. Beside her, Chuck and Chris sat, looking uneasy.

"Ah think we best get outta heah," Bunnie said softly. "Ah didn't realize that the people of this place would take so unkindly to a couple uh humans walkin' round."

"Eet has definitely been a stressful day," Antoine agreed.

"What'll you have?" Asked the bartender, a short badger with the beginnings of a beer-belly cradling his mid-section. His less-than-white work shirt illuminated his name tag, MARTY, in bold, capital letters.

"Nothing, thank you," Antoine said.

"Then ya gotta leave, buster," he said frankly, shrugging. "It's my policy, sorry, keeps unwanted people out."

At this point the bulldog got up from the table and walked up to the bar. He was obviously drunk, and seemed rather annoyed with one of his 'co-workers' he had left at the table. He pushed himself in between Bunnie and Helen and slammed his fists on the table. Helen gasped and dropped her water. It crashed to the ground and shattered.

"MARTY. 'NOTHER PINT!" He shouted, and the bartender looked at him with an annoyed glance.

"I'm right here." He said, and bent down, picking up a huge glass from below the counter. He filled it with brew and shoved it back at the dog, who downed half of it right there. Then he slammed it down on the counter and wiped the liquid from his mouth, before looking at Helen, who immediately glanced away. He huffed and turned to the Bunnie, who had moved a few steps away and was wrinkling up her nose.

"Hey, gorgeous," He said, grinning, and moved his hand to touch her hand. She raised her metal one and grabbed his wrist, frowning.

"No thanks," She said, "Maybe if you didn't smell like a garbage heap in Robotropolis on uh mid-july afternoon."

The dog glanced at her metal fist, then huffed and retracted his hand. He looked behind her and glared at Antoine, who gulped, then set his sights on Brent and Mary.

"Hey, not getting' anything? The man said to leave, ya here? Lousy humans, think they can parade around everywhere. Well, I'll show ya, just the way I did back the day. Pickin' 'em off one by one." He grinned and pointed his index finger at them, his thumb in the air, making the shape of a gun.

"Bang," He said, then grabbed his pint and walked away.

From the corner of Chris's eye, he could see a tear slide down Helen's cheek. Marty the bartender said 'it's okay, miss' and began to walk around the counter with a dustpan. He gave the group a warning glance, letting them know it probably wasn't safe to be here.

"We're leaving." Bunnie said gruffly. She grabbed Helen's chair and wheeled her out. The rest exchanged heavy looks, before following back towards the edge of South Island, and the beginning of the Great Forest.

The glass resonated with a light clinking sound as it made contact with the plastic container. A curse word followed from the lips of the geneticist as his fingers slipped, losing contact with his precious sample. He made for it, quickly, but not quickly enough, and the glass shattered upon the work bench, spilling its red contents in all directions. The man jumped up and slammed his fists on the ground, sighing.

"Butterfingers?"

The scientist growled as he turned towards the door, looking for some form of paper towels. No, of course not. They had no such thing here. "Jen," He said, eyeing the biologist from his squared spectacles, "Don't start with me."

Jen smiled and walked in, looking around the Freedom Fighter Headquarters that Weldenburg had set up shop in. "Was the walrus's lab not big enough for you?"

"No, no," Came the reply, and a rummaging sound as the man disappeared into the other room. He appeared with a tattered rag in his hand, and pulled off his glasses to clean them off. Small flecks of red dotted it, "Rotor's lab is more than sufficient. I just…needed some time to work on my own little project."

Jen watched him carefully make his way back to the workbench, bending over to pick up pieces of the glass vial that had shattered. She looked back towards the stained wood, covered in red. It was rapidly spreading across the table, already pooling around a cylindrical glass container on the lower right hand corner. The rest of the table was littered with papers (stained), genetics equipment, and illuminated slightly by the green chaos emerald.

"Veering off from your orders to pursue your own interests as always," She said, "And this is…?"

"The hedgehog's blood? Yes." Weldenburg said calmly, cleaning off the glass. "My work was to determine the differences between human and Mobian blood. Well, it's pretty much the same, you see. Boring stuff, really. Only a few strands of code that are different, really, and the print-out code can be examined back home. Since that work is done, really, I began focusing with the walrus on my other interest, my real reason for being here." He paused, glancing at Jen, and then turned back towards the console, "Which, as you know, goes hand-in-hand with my _other_ orders.

"He really is extraordinary, this creature. His abilities, his immune system, his strength, all could be used to do amazing things if the right genes could be isolated. I just wish I had more time with him…"

Jen's expression was becoming more and more disturbed, "…Thomas."

Mr. Weldenburg turned, looking back at Jen. "What?"

Her eyes narrowed, and she took a few steps forward. Her hand reached out and rested upon his shoulder, "Don't get too attached to this."

The dim light from the table illuminated his glasses as he placed them back on the bridge of his nose.

"I know," He said, and a stony silence passed in between the two humans. The darkness persisted like a solid wall that was pressing down upon them, until it began to vanish in a green hue. Weldenburg's frown deepened and he turned around to explore the source of the light. "What the…"

The blood had found its way to the Chaos Emerald, and was now pooling around it. The emerald itself was glowing furiously. It illuminated the dark room almost as brightly as a light bulb would have. The stone seemed to be reacting to the blood somehow. The two humans gathered around the table and watched as suddenly tiny points of light seemed to flow through the red liquid, across the wood, and into the cylindrical container. The energy seemed to collect within the container, centering around a large filament within the glass. Then, all at once, the container acquired the same glow as the chaos emerald. Weldenburg reached forward cautiously and lifted the cylinder from the table. The red liquid slipped down the glass and collected around his fingertips. He held it so that it illuminated the heavy wrinkles in his face and the worry lines in Jen's.

"It seems like your original hypothesis was correct," She said flatly.

"Yes, it appears so," Weldenburg replied. He placed the container back on the wood, out of the way of the hedgehog's volunteered DNA. Then he reached up and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Damn."

However pleasurable it was to be out of South Island, Knothole was not on the top of Chris's list of places he wanted to be that night. The group returned exhausted, and the prospect of the sleeping in straw-stuffed beds was not a particularly appealing one. Chris stumbled into the community hut and plopped down on his bed, sighing. His grandfather and Brent did the same. The evening brought a light breeze that floated in through the windows and made its way to Chris's nose. It was refreshing, and heavy with the scent of pine and earth.

Still…however beautiful, it didn't erase what had happened today.

He sat there for a few moments longer, letting his muscles relax. In his mind he replayed the moment in the store when he realized everyone had been staring at him, and the conflict in the bar. He played back the images of Mobian eyes, glaring fiercely at him. The feeling of dread crept back into his head and started to wrap itself around him. Suddenly he felt as though he understood how Sonic felt in cramped places. He wanted to run. He sat there for a few moments more, until the ache in his feet ebbed, and then he was off hut was too suffocating. He needed to be outside. He walked towards the edge of the village and then began circling the perimeter. He listened to his footsteps pat down the dirt, crush the grass beneath his soles. The light breeze continued to blow, and it passed through his hair, drying the sweat from the long ride back. Circling, circling, it didn't do much to help. He always ended up right back where he had started.

On his third trip around the village, he spotted a hut with a lighted window. Whether it had been lit before, he did not know. Still, a sound from within caused the boy to move towards it. He arrived at the door, which was slightly ajar, and paused to peek inside. It was Bunnie's hut, he realized, and there she sat, her flesh arm wrapped around Helen's shoulders as she wept into her hands. The princess stood in front of them, leaning up against a round table and chair set. Chris bit his lip and lowered his head, sighing. The gesture must have been loud, for Sally's ears perked up and she turned to look out the door. When she saw him, she motioned him inside.

A lamp had been fixed to the ceiling and hung down, lighting the hut in dim, golden glow. Chris ducked to enter the doorframe and stood next to Sally. The furniture around him looked miniature and his height trumped the ground squirrel by a mile. Feeling awkward, he sat down in one of the wooden chairs, and looked at the ground. Helen's face peeked out from behind her hands, and she wiped the tears from her eyes immediately.

"Oh, Chris," She said, in an embarrassed tone. She didn't look him in the eye, but stared off in shame, "I'm sorry you have to see me like this."

Chris shook his head, gesturing to her that it was fine. "No, no, Helen. I get it. That creep was scary."

Helen stared at him for a moment, and then looked down. Her bangs covered her eyes and made it impossible for Chris to make out her expression.

"No, it wasn't that…"

Silence dragged on into what seemed like an hour to Chris, for he really didn't know what to say to Helen here, in the presence of Sally and Bunnie. He himself had doubts about what they thought about…about them.

"…When I was a little girl, my father was constantly going on about the 'human problem'," Sally said suddenly. She had her arms folded, and she was looking off to the side. The light glow of the overhead lamp brought out the red in her hair, and her expression seemed warm as she became wrapped in nostalgia. "He wasn't always like that, but as the war became worse his outlook toward the human race grew dark and bitter. My mother, on the other hand, had only nice things to say about humans. She told me never to blame them for what happened. There were a lot of times when I forgot that she had told me that. And when Sonic came back and told me about what he had done in that strange world I admit I was less than thrilled about his view of you guys." She shook her head.

"But after all the stories Sonic told me – how he described you - I realized I was wrong, and I remembered what my mother said. Not all people are wise enough to see past their own prejudices. Still, it's something you have to live with, if you want to be a part of this world, the same way we have to live with it when we travel to human cities."

Bunnie nodded, squeezing Helen's shoulders lightly. "Yeah, it's kinda how like Ah had to get used to all them stares Ah get when Ah go to different places and people see mah arms 'n legs. People don't always take very kindly to me."

Helen shook her head slightly, still staring at the ground. Chris sat still, his hands folded over his knees. He nodded slightly at the ground squirrel's words.

"I've just…" Helen's voice was small and wavering. "I've learned to deal with stares, and people whispering, being in a wheelchair. When I was little it was the worst, but I got used to it. I did it by thinking that they were looking at the chair, not me. They didn't understand. But I've…." She paused as her voice faltered. She clenched her hands together and bowed her head, sniffling.

"I've never been hated…simply for existing…"

Bunnie tightened her grip on Helen's shoulders as her face disappeared behind her hands again. Chris looked up at Sally, who was gazing down at Helen sympathetically. Then, cautiously, he reached forward, across the space between him and Helen. His fingertips found their way to her knee, and he rested his palm against the fabric covering it, brushing his thumb gently over the fibers. They stayed like that for a while longer, the four of them, united through experiences that had previously served to divide their two cultures once and for all.


End file.
